Far from the razzmatazz of party leaders, media buses and TV debates, in a backroom of the Foundery Cafe in Port Kembla, more than 50 people gathered on a rainy Tuesday night to confront a clear and present everyday danger to Australians: domestic and family violence.
“As of the 22nd of April, 23 women have been killed in this year alone,” moderator Kylie Flament told the audience, who came to the ‘Your Voice, Your Body, Your Vote’ forum to hear how federal candidates would represent women.
Four local charities known for their tireless good work called the event: Supported Accommodation & Homelessness Services Shoalhaven Illawarra (SAHSSI), Women Illawarra, Illawarra Women’s Health Centre and Wollongong Homeless Hub and Housing Services.
The panel of six federal candidates included two from Whitlam, Labor’s Carol Berry and the Greens’ Jamie Dixon, and four from Cunningham: sitting Labor MP Alison Byrnes; the Greens’ Jess Whittaker; the Animal Justice Party’s Tim Lavers; and the Citizens Party’s Alexis Garnaut-Miller.
Ms Flament, CEO of Social Enterprise Council of NSW & ACT, ran to a tight timetable, giving each candidate 60 seconds to respond to questions, including the big one: “What specific funding commitments will you advocate for to expand crisis and transitional housing options for women, especially those impacted by domestic and family violence or homelessness in the region?"
Labor MP Alison Byrnes spoke first, referring to the Housing Australia Future Fund. “We’ve got 4000 social and affordable homes dedicated to women fleeing family and domestic violence,” she said.
“We've also here, one of our amazing local providers, I was just getting a little update before – SAHSSI received from us $2.6 million for eight places, which will actually provide 32 safe places at one time, assisting up to 256 women and children experiencing family and domestic violence per year. “That one's up and running at the moment.”
In February, SAHSSI also received $4.6m as part of the government’s Crisis and Transitional Accommodation Program to buy, remodel and expand six dwellings in Wollongong for women and children at risk.
“They should be ready to go in about four or five months,” Ms Byrnes said. “So we're up and running here in the Illawarra, and I know of a couple of other shovel ready projects that we need to get started on … if we are lucky enough to be reelected. But we do know that Peter Dutton has threatened to tear up the Housing Australia Future Fund as well. So just making sure you all know about that too.”
'Shocking' toll of domestic violence
The Greens candidate for Cunningham, Jess Whittaker, said: “Currently one woman is dying every week – there's been 20 this year and seven just during the election campaign, which is absolutely shocking. In a wealthy country like ours, the Greens think that we should fully fund the national plan to end violence against women and children, help those that are forced to choose between homelessness and further violence.”
Adding to this, Whitlam Greens candidate Jamie Dixon said: “We are funding $3.3 million towards a national disclosure scheme so that if any female entering into a relationship can actually get real data on whether a prospective partner has a history of domestic violence. We are also advocating for a mandatory code of conduct for all dating apps to help prevent any kind of violence stemming from them, and also a preventative campaign in schools, which is $477 million for the education about kind, respectful relationships.”
Tax fix proposed
The AJP’s Tim Lavers, a software engineer standing for election for the first time, talked about his party’s tax policy to fund essential services. “One of the policies for the Animal Justice Party is to fully fund crisis accommodation for people who need to escape a dangerous situation, and for that crisis accommodation to enable them to take their beloved pets with them, so that they will actually leave the dangerous situation.
“The way we look at it is, imagine that there's a new terror group that comes to Australia and kills someone every four days. How much money would we throw at that problem? Okay, how much are we spending on submarines to keep Australians safe – or not? So if it's an expensive solution we've got, that's because it's a terrible problem.”
Mr Lavers said he’s met many people trapped in homelessness during his campaign. “I've seen people sleeping on railway stations for a week or more, in parks and, of course, those in cars. And yet, census night 2021, 300,000 properties in New South Wales were vacant and 20% in Shoalhaven were vacant at that time …
“What we want to do is to make sure that people who own multiple investment properties pay so much tax on them that it's better for them to rent them out and maybe even sell them.”
Need to do more
Citizens Party candidate Alexis Garnaut-Miller advocated for a public bank but did not have a specific funding commitment, saying: “We need to do a lot more redirecting of funds, from recapturing of things like royalties.”
Carol Berry, currently the CEO of The Disability Trust and Labor’s pick to replace retiring MP Stephen Jones in Whitlam, said: “Labor has a national plan to end violence against women and children, and we've made a $3.4 billion commitment to enhance women's safety. That includes funding to further develop frontline services and to fund more frontline workers in addressing violence against women …
“We've also invested in providing a $5000 payment for women who are escaping violence. And we’ve, of course, made some commitments in relation to trauma recovery, including the very first trauma recovery centre, which is located in the Whitlam electorate. We're also developing legal reforms to address deep fake content.”
Wide range of questions
Other topics tackled included the future of the NDIS, endometriosis, medical misogyny, access to abortion, birth trauma and the lack of maternity services planned for the new Shellharbour Hospital.
Audience members asked how parties would fix the gender pay gap and address issues such as alcohol and gambling advertising. A member of Better Births Illawarra recommended putting women in control of birthing processes, saying it leads to better outcomes, while a representative from peak body Community Industry Group asked, “Will you commit to a review of the funding and grants management model to improve viability and certainty for not-for-profit community service organisations?”
Candidates across the spectrum backed the call to support the charities that support local women, with Carol Berry replying: “Absolutely, I agree with what you've proposed.”
“The Greens would very much like to see that happen,” Jamie Dixon added.
Alison Byrnes acknowledged the four charities that organised the event. "Thank you all for all of the work that you do in our community helping women,” she said.
No Liberal candidates at forum
No Liberal candidates attended April 29's forum.
Invited at late notice due to an admin error, Cunningham candidate Amanda Ivaneza was unable to attend. Organisers have apologised and offered to publish her statement on women’s issues.
Sally Stevenson, executive director of Illawarra Women’s Health Centre, said that organisers had also invited Whitlam candidate Nathaniel Smith. “We approached the Liberal Party and I also emailed him directly, but we received no response.”