Northern Territory women’s shelter receives $4.1 million cash injection
The only women's shelter in Alice Springs has been given a funding boost following calls to improve services in the Northern Territory. The 4.1-million-dollar investment will mean the shelter can employ six new staff.
Transcript
00:00 The Women's Safety Services of Central Australia is the only crisis accommodation and domestic
00:09 violence shelter for women and children escaping domestic and family violence in Alice Springs.
00:15 They service the Alice Springs area as well as remote communities in and around Central
00:22 Australia.
00:23 They have 30 beds and we heard during a coronial inquest last year that they're almost always
00:29 full and almost always understaffed.
00:33 This $4 million over the next four years will mean that WASCA can employ another six staff
00:41 members including for the first time a cultural advisor because up to about 95% of their clients
00:50 are indigenous.
00:52 They're also for the first time going to be able to employ a children's advocate and we
00:57 heard from the CEO that about 34% of their clients in the crisis accommodation centre
01:04 are children under the age of 15 and she said that prior to this funding that had been a
01:11 cohort of their clientele that they really hadn't been able to properly service.
01:16 And so this $4 million over four years, that long term funding is also they said quite
01:24 exciting for them, it means that they will have time to be able to properly evaluate
01:29 those roles and give them time to work and to succeed.
01:35 They're also going to be able to employ other staff members which includes being able to
01:40 go out and provide training in remote communities as well as to relieve a bit of the burden
01:47 on their intake and case management services as well.
01:53 We have heard that this shelter is being as the only service in Central Australia like
02:00 this, they're constantly overburdened.
02:04 So as the only service like this, just how critical is the shelter for Central Australia?
02:10 Well the Northern Territory has the highest rates of domestic and family violence in the
02:14 country.
02:15 You're seven times more likely to be killed by your partner in the Northern Territory
02:20 than anywhere else in Australia.
02:22 And so services like WOSCA and other shelters around the Northern Territory are really critical.
02:28 We've heard from the Northern Territory Police recently that in the last 10 years they've
02:33 seen a 117% increase in the number of domestic and family violence call outs.
02:42 They're also now predicting a 73% increase over the next 10 years.
02:47 And so domestic and family violence is a massive issue in the Northern Territory and it's not
02:51 one that is going away any time soon.
02:54 Advocates in Central Australia in particular have been really vocal over the past few months
03:01 and years to really bring to light the issues that are faced, particularly in the Northern
03:07 Territory and the vast remote space in the NT that is something that some of these shelters
03:17 and services really struggle to be able to access people in those remote communities.
03:22 And so this funding for WOSCA will be really crucial, particularly for them to be able
03:27 to go out to some of those remote communities.
03:29 But we do know that this $4 million over the next four years certainly won't fix the problem
03:36 that is certainly predicted to continue increasing.
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