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Women Safe from Violence

Local women and their children deserve to be safe from violence, but ten years on from Victoria’s Royal Commission into Family Violence, local family and gender-based violence rates continue to rise. Local Police and frontline services are overworked and underfunded keeping victim survivors in dangerous situations for far too long. 

I will fight for 

• Immediate, significant and ongoing funding injection to front line services like the Footscray Orange Door, McAuley Services for Women, GenWest and WestCASA to get women and their children the help they need immediately and sustainably. 

• Priority, local public housing for women and their children so their lives are not disrupted by having to leave the area.

• Funding to end backlogs at the Sunshine Magistrates' Court; longer minimum terms for IVOs and harsher penalties for breaches.

• Significant funding injection for local men's behaviour change programs and culturally appropriate prevention initiatives (to be rolled out in local churches, sporting programs, schools). 

• Funding for Footscray Police Station to stay open 24/7

Background 

Nearly ten years on from Victoria's Family Violence Royal Commission 2017, family and gender-based violence in the Footscray electorate continues to rise. In 2024-25, there were over 1200 family violence incidents, or more than three a day (noting these are just the incidents reported to Police). Of these: 

• 3 local women a week are ending up in the ER

• A child (17 or under) was present at 1 in 5 incidents 

• The vast majority of incidents in 2025 were breach of an IVO (700) followed by common and serious assault, then criminal damage. 

• 1 in 5 victims were born overseas (though note in 50 percent of incidents the place of birth is unknown)

Local support services are overwhelmed, meaning women very rarely get access to immediate support when they decide to leave. In line with recommendations from the Royal Commission, access to all family violence support services is triaged through the Footscray Orange Door. But wait times for triage have been up to two months, leaving women without access to any services and at continued risk of violence or of homelessness. It also means victim survivors are only accessing services when they have reached crisis point, leaving little to no opportunity for early intervention or behaviour change initiatives. Frontline services in the electorate – Orange Door, GenWest, McAuley, WestCASA and more – need immediate, significant and ongoing funding to help victim survivors more quickly and sustainably with their recovery. 

What’s more, these services often lack capacity for tailoring responses to cultural needs and rely on a woman leaving their home and their relationship to access help – often against the wishes of a victim survivor. This means women have to change jobs, their children have to change schools, and their lives are further disrupted. Local victim survivors must be able to stay locally, either in their own home or through prioritised public housing places. 

Justice system responses are also not fit for purpose. In the Footscray electorate alone, Police are attending an average of two intervention order breaches a day; intervention orders which take months to get due to backlogs at the Sunshine Magistrates' Court. Court-mandated men’s behaviour change programs are also over-subscribed. The Courts need a significant injection of funding to end backlogs, and local Police need more funding and resources to better assist family violence situations before IVO breaches can happen. 

The number of local children witnessing or experiencing violence is also concerningly on the rise. Behaviour change and awareness initiatives for all age groups are vital to stemming this trend, rolled out in local schools, sports clubs, and cultural hubs to churches, community centres and more.