E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Topic: Expanding crisis accommodation services for First Nations communities.
MATT SMITH, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR LEICHHARDT: Morning. My name is Matt Smith, the ALP's candidate for the Federal seat of Leichhardt, standing here at Warringu today. I've just been out the back speaking to some of the workforce here, Davina and Karen, and they are doing some absolutely fantastic work keeping women and children safe right across the region. Every woman and child deserves safety. Organisations such as Warringu are able to provide that support for those fleeing domestic violence situations and preparing the women and the children, helping them get back onto their feet and back into the community.
We're here today specifically as well for an announcement for additional targeted funding for the Torres Strait, a bit over $1.2 million to improve the services of women's shelters up there to make sure they too can provide culturally appropriate services for their women and children. Shelters is an interesting term. There are a lot of implications behind it. The guys here at Warringu prefer the new term healing places, which is what they are. It gives the women and children space to heal, become themselves and get back out and live their best lives. I'll hand over now to Minister Rishworth who has more detail.
AMANDA RISHWORTH, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: It’s absolutely wonderful to be here with Matt Smith and we've just been speaking to those working at Warringu, an Aboriginal-controlled organisation providing important safety safety to women and children escaping family and domestic violence. What we heard today is the activities they are undertaking as a result of a grant that we provided them of over a million dollars. And part of that work is about building the capacity of the women's shelters across the whole of Far North Queensland. Hearing how they're supporting women's shelters across Far North Queensland, to feel like they're not alone, to support them with extra clinical expertise and governance support. This is really important work and what it does is it enables the whole network of 13 different women's shelters to be able to build capacity and improve their service offering. But today what we're also announcing is an immediate boost of $1.25 million to be directed into the Torres Strait.
We know that many Torres Strait Islander women and children don't want to come all the way to Cairns if they are wanting to get out of a family and domestic violence situation. The message we heard very clear as we developed our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan, but also through the rapid review, was that women and children don't want to leave the Torres Strait to find safety. And that's why the immediate funding boost that we're announcing today for the Torres Strait will enable that organisation up there, the women's shelter up there, to expand their capacity and to do more work with women and children escaping family and domestic violence. This is one of just one of the initiatives that we have taken as a government for funding family and domestic violence. It builds on our National Plan to end violence against women and children in one generation, and of course, our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan that was actually developed alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This is really important investment and funding, and I look forward to seeing the results that it will be able to deliver.
JOURNALIST: What exactly will this money go towards? I mean, will it be more employees? Will it be more buildings?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: This funding is about expanding the capacity of the shelter. It really is flexible funding to respond to local need. What we heard here at Warringu was the funding went particularly to workers that can work with sexual violence in particular, because that is something that has not been focused on as much as they would like to. The funding also went to connecting up and supporting shelters across the region so that they can have better systems in place to support women and children. So, we will work with the local shelter on Thursday Island to work out what investment they need to improve the capacity of their shelter. So, it is deliberately designed to be flexible to meet local needs. And hearing from Warringu today, they said the flexibility is critically important so they can meet the needs of local community.
JOURNALIST: Why have you decided to start this funding in the Torres Strait? Are the domestic violence rates particularly bad there?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: It is not because there is more violence in the Torres Strait. Why we are investing in the Torres Strait is because we heard the deep desire to make sure people do not have to leave the Torres Strait. So, women and children clearly said through our rapid review, through our consultations on our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander plan, that they don't want to travel too far from community. So, the Torres Strait was particularly identified because we want to ensure that there is increased capacity so that women and children can stay in the Torres Strait and don't have to, for example, come all the way to Cairns.
JOURNALIST: How many people - women and children - are seen at this facility roughly?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: I will leave it to local organisations to talk about that. What we hear though, is that many, many women and children do seek support and do seek crisis accommodation. But as we heard from the workers here today, it is also about healing and recovery. And that's a really important part of the National Plan and the work they do, but each location is different. But, of course, women and children escaping family and domestic violence - there is high demand, and we want to make sure there's a safe place for them to go. Thank you.