Illawarra domestic violence campaigners say they have been left "confounded" by an exchange over funding of the Illawarra Trauma Recovery Centre in a Budget Estimates hearing.
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On Wednesday, NSW Minister for Women's Safety and the Prevention of Domestic and Sexual Violence Natalie Ward was quizzed about why the centre - which will be the first of its kind and has widespread support - was not funded in the June budget.
Greens' MLC Abigail Boyd noted the centre got $25 million from the Federal Government in March to cover operating costs over five years, and needed money for the land and construction from the state.
Ms Ward said she couldn't comment on decisions made by the state's expenditure review committee, but that Health Minister Brad Hazzard had written to federal government ministers "regarding the capital components of the proposal to see if there's opportunity for part of that to pivot to services as well".
"We have advocated with our federal counterparts for some of that capital funding to be available for service provision," she said. "We're waiting to hear back."
But Ms Boyd said splitting the federal funding up would leave the centre worse off.
"So you're saying that instead of NSW Government providing the funding in order for the centre to be able to operate, the state government has asked federal government to divide its amount up so that it can pay for the building and the operating costs, thereby leaving the centre pretty much worse off?" Ms Boyd said.
"Instead of you advocating for it in the budget, you've written to the federal counterpart to get them to split that funding, so now it won't go for five years, because some of this will be used for a building. Is that correct?"
NSW Health does not currently have unallocated funding available to support the full capital request of the IWHC, so Minister Hazzard contacted his Federal counterpart to ascertain how both levels of Government could work together to progress the centre.
- Spokesperson for Brad Hazzard.
Ms Ward said there had been "a number of competing interests in this area for funding".
"What was funded was $700 million of funding for services and it's important that we continue that," she said.
Sally Stevenson, the general manager of the Illawarra Women's Health Centre, which will establish the trauma centre, said she was "confounded" by the budget estimates exchange.
"It's staggering to me that a minister for domestic and family violence does not understand or cannot see what a missed opportunity this is for her to show leadership in the sector, on a national scale," Ms Stevenson said.
"We started this campaign over three years ago, and we've been able to gather significant support not just in the Illawarra, but across the country.
Ms Stevenson said putting a service like the trauma centre in place was a "public health emergency" with domestic and family violence rates continuing to increase.
She said the centre was backed by the federal government, the NSW Women's Alliance, and had delivered a business case to the state more than a year ago showing a "clear and compelling" economic and compassionate case .
"We set out an undeniable economic argument, in addition to a compassionate one. It's a no brainer for the NSW Government, it's really a small investment for what will have a huge impact for women and children in the Illawarra, and also on the economy."
"What [Ms Ward's] suggestion means is that she's trying to gouge our operational funding, it effectively means she's taking away services from women in the Illawarra."
The project needs around $18 million from the NSW Government: $4 million for the land and $14 million to build the centre.
Mr Hazzard's office said the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District had offered the women's health centre land to build the Trauma Recovery Centre on, which would therefore assist with costs associated with purchasing land.
"NSW Health does not currently have unallocated funding available to support the full capital request of the IWHC, so Minister Hazzard contacted his Federal counterpart to ascertain how both levels of Government could work together to progress the centre," a spokesperson said.
Mr Hazzard's spokesperson said he believed the Budget Estimates hearing was used to politicise a "genuine attempt to work with the Illawarra Women's Health Centre (IWHC) and Local Members".
"Nonetheless, Mr Hazzard looks forward to continuing to work together to progress the important work of the IWHC and the proposed Women's Trauma Recovery Centre," they said.
Also in the Budget Estimates hearing, Ms Boyd questioned the decision making process for funding women's safety projects, highlighting that the $700 million budget for women's safety mentioned by Ms Ward included a $30 million spend on street lighting.
"There's $30 million for 'anti street harassment infrastructure', which I understand is street lights that should have been funding by Infrastructure," the Greens politician said.
"The idea that street lights is somehow all about safety for women as opposed to safety for people in general? That is not an evidence based assertion, that is not something that the DV sector was calling for. Of course we need street lights, but that's an infrastructure issue.
"Why has that been dressed up as being about women's safety, when as the same time we're not funding something as groundbreaking as the Illawarra Trauma Centre?"
Ms Ward said the program, called Safer Cities was "an excellent program supporting CCTV and lighting to make safer areas in women."
"I wouldn't be dismissive of that work, I think it's important work, particularly where it was launched in Parramatta where there was a murder of a woman in that particular park, where lighting and CCTV would have potentially prevented that homicide," she said.
Shellharbour MP Anna Watson, who has long been an advocate for the centre, said she would keep fighting for state funding.
"The state government need to stop pushing this onto the federal government," she said.
"Minister Ward obviously doesn't understand how important this is. To be the minister for family and domestic violence and sit in budget estimates, and not be across the brief just shows me how out of her depth she is."
"It's not a big ask, it's under $18 million - they can afford to do it, it's just going to take political will."
Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
