Parliamentary Updates

28 October 2025

Domestic and family violence remains one of the biggest concerns for voters in Warringah. Last week I hosted a local roundtable, bringing together frontline crisis services, local advocates and men's programs. The discussion reinforced the state of crisis demand for services and is just staggering. Northern Beaches Women's Shelter went from assisting 12 women a day in 2020 to now facing demand of over 70 women daily. Last year they had to turn away over 580 women due to capacity shortages. Mary 's House turned away 118 women, not because they didn't need help, but because there was nowhere to go or to help them. Services like the local kind, Vinnies and Mary 's House, provide support for women, including those on temporary visas, often they have no work, well, they have no working rights and when they are escaping violence they are left with no assistance. This places enormous strain on these nonprofit organisations who already have such stretched resources.

We also heard from Mentoring Men, a national volunteer-led peer counselling service. 40% of their conversations with men are about relationships and the challenges they face. Also raised was essentially, that it happens during key life transitions, including like the birth of a child, and we know anecdotally that the birth of children is often a time when women are particularly vulnerable to violence from their partner and is exactly when rates increase. So that's what a service like Mentoring Men and these conversations are so essential and desperately need support.

Funding remains a major barrier. These services rely heavily on philanthropy, fundraising activities, because ultimately there is funding shortfall. Mentoring Men poses an immediate $150,000 shortfall and need 3 million annually for stability. Northern beaches women's shelter receives just $60,000 in government funding, it gets to service costs nearly $1 million. We cannot fail these essential services, and these are just examples within my community. I appreciate there are many more. They need more than just thoughts and prayers from the Government when horrific incidents happen. We need, and during the roundtable, five areas emerged that would dramatically move the dial. First and foremost, support for women escaping domestic and family violence who are on partner linked visas, they need to get access to faster, more efficient resolution of their visa status to ensure that they can access supports like housing and JobSeeker. That will free up the funds of not-for-profit organisations that are currently covering the rest. We need to prioritise prevention and address root causes, making sure there is funding to assist these organisations.

Of course the list is long and I urge the government to do more.