Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to share some very welcome news and a big win for our community. After strong local advocacy, I'm delighted that the Milsons Point post office will remain open. This outcome is a testament to the power of community action. When people come together, speak up and persist they can make a real difference. Earlier this year, members of the Milson Precinct reached out to my office, deeply concerned about the unexpected and sudden announcement of the proposed closure of the local post office. Along with communities from Kirribilli, Milsons Point, Lavender Bay and residents of Greenway, James Milson Village and the Port Jackson Tower housing complexes, they coordinated an advocacy campaign to save this important community asset and access to vital services.

On behalf of the community, I wrote to and met with Australia Post to understand the issue and to ensure that these vulnerable residents were not left without access to vital services. In fact, it was the detail in this procedure that was important. Upon becoming aware of the change of the rental conditions of the premises in which the Milsons Point post office was located, which is held by New South Wales Transport, I followed up in writing with the government and the Prime Minister, and the Minister for Transport in New South Wales, John Graham, and requested that they reconsider the tender process to allow Australia Post to remain at the Milsons Point location.

As I said, I briefed the Prime Minister—who I would say is Kirribilli's most well-known resident—and the government about the circumstances of the proposed closure. In that respect, I'd like to thank the Prime Minister and the government for their engagement and support with both the Minister for Transport, John Graham, and the CEO of Australia Post, Paul Graham, for hearing our community's concerns and for engaging and ultimately resolving this issue.

My team attended the large community forum held at the local church to discuss the issue at the outset. There were some 400-plus attendees, highlighting how important this issue was for the community. We then attended a further local precinct meeting to hear from the community and followed up with Australia Post to ensure that the community were able to be heard. All the while, my constituent liaison officer in my office, Nilmini Panditharatne, to whom I have to give a special shout-out and say thank you, kept in constant contact, ensuring that we continued to advocate for the post office to remain open. It truly is a community win and a testament to the coordinated, respectful, determined effort of all involved.

Another issue I want to raise is the domestic and family violence roundtable that I hosted recently. Earlier this month, I held this roundtable with many of our leading organisations and not-for-profits in Warringah. We heard from those on the front line in our communities, such as Northern Beaches Women's Shelter, Mary's House Services, Women & Children First, Women's Resilience Centre, Dalwood Splistead Service, LocalKind Northern Beaches, St Vincent de Paul and Lighthouse for the Community. These providers play an immense role, providing shelters, crisis accommodation and also practical support such as funding for car registrations, laptops, food banks and clothing and connecting affected families with legal and immigration services. We heard from those working in the mental health space, such as Mentoring Men and Lifeline Northern Beaches. These organisations help to shift attitudes, rebuild confidence and address the trauma before it becomes another statistic. Importantly, we heard from the local primary health network, who work with preventive and crisis centres to make sure that women and children escaping domestic and family violence get the mental health and wellbeing support they require. We also heard from local residents and advocates, both men and women, who shared their ideas and lived experience.

The roundtable highlighted what we already knew: our crisis centres are in crisis and our mental and primary health services are under incredible strain. Northern Beaches Women's Shelter accepted 12 women per day in 2020. The demand is now up to 70 per day. Last year they were able to house 273 women and children, but had to turn away some 584 women. These are the women who are attending the service, but we know that there are so many more who don't even report or come to services, and they don't receive support for fear of retribution.

These services are relied upon by the community. As pointed out by the Women's Resilience Centre, many women can feel uncomfortable going to police. We know 78 per cent of women never report violence to the police, and too often funding is tied to reporting. There is a question around the way funding is allocated in New South Wales for the Staying Home Leaving Violence program, because it is often tied to whether or not reports have been made. With increased demand, grant funding is simply not sufficient. This is an issue where it's not just a question of: more money has been spent by the government, so why is the problem not getting better? The problem is that we're still underfunding this sector.

There were five key outcomes of this roundtable. First, crisis centres are overwhelmingly providing funding assistance for women who are escaping domestic and family violence but who may be tied to their partner, meaning that they're unable to access JobSeeker and family benefit payments. This is a question when they are here on partner visas and, as a result, the non-profit organisations are having to meet the support for these women, whereas we should normally be able to get them into our systems. I've raised with the minister's office that, in circumstances of domestic and family violence that involve partner visas, we need to be able to move these women onto visas that would enable them to access support so that our not-for-profit organisations are not carrying the financial burden. I look forward to trying to find a solution to this problem.

Second, greater support for children who are escaping violence is needed. Crisis centres need the right scaffolding to support children. Their needs are different to those of their parents. This includes appropriate housing and other practical support—clothes, books and school supplies. We know, for example, the 10 sessions of GP mental health are proven to be insufficient to effectively respond to the situation, in particular for children impacted by the situation.

Third, at the heart of the crisis is housing. Greater funding is needed for crisis housing and looking at different opportunities to redevelop existing infrastructure, such as aged-care facilities. There is a lack of real data on DV numbers and available housing. New South Wales, I was shocked to find out, has no centralised domestic violence housing vacancy managing system. It is up to each individual organisation to find out whether there is housing and source it. This is a simple fix: having a database to ensure that happens. It creates extra administration burden on crisis centres that are already understaffed and struggling. They have to spend time calling around, connecting with other centres for availability for women who need shelter. Surely we can have a centralised domestic violence housing vacancy management system.

Better discretion for organisations to distribute funding as they see fit was also called for, especially with accommodation to meet high rental costs in Sydney. Currently, the way funding is allocated to these organisations has so much regulation and so many rules around it. They can't apply it in a discretionary way to short-term accommodation to make up for shortfalls in crisis accommodation being available. That was an overwhelming call as well.

The fourth point was the implementation of specialist domestic and family violence courts that have expertise in dealing with victims of domestic family violence. We have specialist courts for other areas. Why do we not have a specialised court for domestic and family violence? Having come as a barrister from the family law sector, there is no doubt that domestic and family violence is prevalent across many areas. We should have a specialised stream in our courts to deal with this issue so that we have specialist decision-makers with the proper training and understanding.

The fifth area, most importantly, is, obviously, that prevention needs to be addressed if we are going to have any hope of achieving the goal of eliminating domestic and family violence and at least reducing it substantially. We need the urgent implementation of the rapid review recommendation, especially around delay or reduction of alcohol delivery times that were increased during COVID. That's already been implemented by the ACT. We need to ban gambling advertising. The link between gambling and alcohol and increased domestic violence numbers is really clear. I urge the government to implement recommendations of the Murphy review and to start acting on these known social harms.

We need men to be part of the conversation, especially those who are calling for change. An organisation that I've met with, Mentoring Men, are desperate for funding. They can't get any funding. And yet, this is an organisation that has grown out of mental health support but is now playing a role in domestic violence. They can have the peer-to-peer, man-to-man conversations to start calling out this scourge. There's so much more to be done.