Domestic and family violence service providers feel short-changed by the state government in light of its $5.7 billion surplus, as WA's housing crisis makes it harder to help victims.
Premier Mark McGowan delivered the state budget last week, allocating $34.4 million to a range of family and domestic violence prevention and support measures.
That included an investment of $14.7 million to create the state's third one-stop family and domestic violence (FDV) hub in the southern suburb of Armadale, $7.7 million to enhance response teams and $4.5 million to help address the issue in the Kimberley.
'Chronic underfunding' remains
While WA's Centre for Women's Safety and Wellbeing welcomed the announcement, its director for domestic, family and sexual violence, Alison Evans, said it did not go far enough.
"The sector suffers from chronic underfunding and is always trying to catch up whenever there's increased funding," she said.
"We all often look at Victoria with a great deal of envy because we know that it can make a difference if the sector is better resourced."
Dr Evans said she would have liked to see the government invest some of its multi-billion-dollar surplus to help services address the unmet needs around longer-term recovery for victims.
"We need to better support the family domestic violence workforce to enable them to deliver the most effective and safe services for women and their children," she said.
"It's very difficult when they have to be spending a lot of time trying to get additional grants and things to ensure they can be as responsive as possible."
Warning housing crisis must be fixed
But Ms Evans said the state's housing crisis was also to blame for pressures on service providers and that it required "critical and immediate attention".
She said more than 90 per cent of first requests by clients to Specialist Homelessness Services for long-term accommodation were unable to be met.
"There's just not that transitional and long-term housing available that's really critical to managing complex risk cases and keeping victims safe," she said.
"I've been in the Kimberley recently, and there's very few safe and affordable housing options there, and they're also often living in highly disadvantaged circumstances and aren't able to save money.
"Financial and housing security does not only support women and children's efforts towards freedom from abuse, but it also helps them in their recovery and capacity to repair their lives … so I don't think we could overstate how important it is to be addressing those barriers as well."
No more room for victims
The lack of accommodation has impacted refuges in the state's regions, where an overwhelming surge in demand had left many victims helpless.
One refuge in the South West said it was forced to turn away 300 women and children last year and more than 150 this year so far.
The CEO, who asked to remain unnamed, said it was a "horrible" experience having to tell people fleeing violence that there was no room for them.
"You have a conversation and people are crying, people are explaining that they're living in cars, or they're living on people's sofas [and] that they've been in that situation for months," she said.
"Because of the shortage of housing, women and children are staying a lot longer at the refuge, which means that when they're escaping violence, they've got nowhere to go when the refuges are already full.
"I think the biggest increase in homelessness is also coming out of the fact that there's just nowhere for women and children to go [and] many of them opt to stay with the perpetrator rather than being potentially homeless."
She said the level of funding was not equal to the cost of running services.
"All the refuges are facing similar problems … so I think putting the funding to the level that the service requires is all any refuges want."
State calls for more federal help
WA's Minister for Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence Simone McGurk defended her government's budget, claiming it was "committed to tackling the scourge of family and domestic violence".
This financial year's funding boost took the government's total investment in family and domestic violence to more than $150 million since coming into office.
In a statement, Ms McGurk said it was the time-limited funding provided by the federal government under the National Partnership Agreement that was the issue.
"It only highlights what we as a government have been saying about the lack of sustained funding from the Commonwealth," Ms McGurk said.
"As a government we have consistently been calling on the Commonwealth to step up to ensure long term, sustainable funding is secured for services across the nation."
But the state opposition criticised the government for not filling the gap when it had the means to.
"At a time when the McGowan Labor government is sitting on a $5.7 billion surplus, which the Treasurer gloated would be the envy of the other states, there is absolutely no reason they should not be trying to help the affected services struggling to meet demand," shadow minister for prevention of family and domestic violence Libby Mettam said.
"To pass the buck and blame the Commonwealth for any shortfall when you have posted $11 billion in surpluses over two years is appalling and shows just how out of touch this government has become.
"A $400 electricity rebate is of little value if you have no home or are living in a refuge."
