Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to talk about the devastating impact of the forced closure of the Tweed Valley Women's Service in Murwillumbah. I will continue to call on the New South Wales government to act urgently to restore full funding and reopen this important service.

The Tweed Valley Women's Service was forced to close after their funding was just suddenly cut. The service was advised on 17 December 2015 that their contract had suddenly been cancelled by their lead agency, On Track Community Programs, meaning $580,000 in New South Wales state government funding along with 13 jobs were suddenly cut. I, like so many in our community, was shocked and outraged that this forced closure had occurred, given the vital services they had been providing, particularly for those women and children fleeing from domestic violence. Just as disturbing is the fact that it occurred just before Christmas.

The Tweed Valley Women's Service has provided counselling, education, mentoring, crisis accommodation, transitional housing and support for women and children experiencing domestic violence. The service has been in operation in the Tweed Shire for 30 years.

The North Coast National Party MPs and their state government have chosen to ignore locals by failing to assist with this very desperate situation. The complete inaction by the New South Wales government and local National Party MPs Thomas George and Geoff Provest is both shameful and irresponsible. I am also calling on those National Party MPs to explain to the community: why did their government allow On Track Community Programs to suddenly cut this funding from this important service? Both state members have shown that they are unwilling and unable to do the job they were elected to do, so I will continue to work with the executive of the Tweed Valley Women's Service and our community to have this service reopened.

On behalf of the service, I have made representations to Premier Mike Baird and also to the relevant New South Wales ministers, Brad Hazzard and Pru Goward. We have also launched a petition demanding the New South Wales government restore funding to the service. The community response so far has been overwhelming. I would like to commend the executive of the service and all those locals who rallied together to support this cause. So far they have had three separate protests, a community meeting, a march and a rally.

We have all seen reports that violence against women is at epidemic proportions. As a former police officer, I saw firsthand the devastating impact of domestic violence on women and children in our community. We have a crisis that needs to be addressed, and services like the Tweed Valley Women's Service are desperately needed and their full funding must be restored.

This situation can be fixed today. It can be fixed right now, so I call on the New South Wales Premier to listen to our community, act and fix this.