Hypocrisy reigns as minister for women cuts services

In a move that might set the mark for gob-smacking hypocrisy, Tony Abbott recently declared domestic violence campaigner Rosie Battie the Australian of the year, just one month before his government implemented the biggest cut to federal funding of women’s domestic violence services in Australian history.

The newly minted Australian of the year immediately took Abbott to task, calling the decision to close services while publicly condemning domestic violence “a double standard”. Battie speaks often about the importance of access to services for women trying to escape violence. The cuts are “contradictory and totally undervaluing the part that these workers play in our front line services”, she said.

The deception and double-speak of self-appointed women’s minister Tony Abbott and his liberal colleagues belie their views about women. All the white ribbons in the world can’t mask their agenda.

As of 28 February, more than 50 organisations providing critical family violence services will cut staff, slash programs or close entirely as a result of brutal federal funding cuts totalling $300 million. The impact of these cuts on an already stressed sector cannot be overstated. To add to the crisis, Abbott has also cut funds for Aboriginal, multicultural and youth homelessness services.

The cuts mean that the National Family Violence Prevention Legal Service, an organisation that works specifically with Indigenous families, will be forced to close unless alternative funding is found. Dozens of community legal centres across the country will lose family violence specialists and expect that they will now have to turn women and children away. In Victoria, the Federation of Community Legal Centres estimates that more than one-third of all new files opened in its affiliated services relate to domestic violence. This demand will not disappear simply because the funding does.

Burwood Community Welfare Service in NSW – which operates direct assistance programs in Sydney’s inner west dealing with housing, homelessness and financial counselling – has had all of its funding cut. The Women’s Legal Centre in the ACT expects to have to turn away 500 women a year as a result of cuts affecting it.

These services are the tip of a melting iceberg. Aboriginal family violence prevention legal services are facing near extinction. The farce of Tony Abbott’s role as minister for women and Aboriginal affairs is a slap in the face for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women.

The Australian Services Union has launched a campaign to fight the government. It’s calling on community sector workers to join the nationwide protest on 4 March against Abbott’s attacks on jobs, wages and our right to properly funded services. We cannot let these cuts stand.

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Simone White is a domestic violence and sexual assault counsellor and member of the Australian Services Union.