BSafe funding must continue
May 30, 2011
Today in Parliament, Federal Member for Murray, Dr Sharman Stone again called on the Gillard Government to continue the funding of BSafe.
BSafe helps to provide protection for women who have a restraining order against a violent partner. They are supplied with a personal alarm which they can use to contact a 24hr response centre which in turn alerts the police. The alarm is also a very cost effective measure.
“I have been hugely disappointed that this program, started under the Coalition government, has not been re-funded. More than 70 women were being assisted.
“I informed Minister Kate Ellis of the funding problem in November 2010. She has done nothing about it,” Sharman Stone said.
“When you look at the alarming figures, one in three Australian women has experienced physical violence since the age of 15. The BSafe program assists these women, their children and families in allowing them to continue to live at home, and their children to stay at their schools. The alternative is too often that women have to keep moving to hide from violent partners who break restraining orders.
“Unfortunately, the coordinator of this program now has to tell the women who are currently in this program and the police and other local community service providers that BSafe cannot take the new numbers of women who are being referred to the agency,” Sharman Stone said.
“This program has won an award recently as one of the most successful programs dealing with the issue of domestic violence, and yet it cannot get funding from the current government.
“This is just not acceptable. This program should be expanded across all of Australia, not cut off.
“I call on the Federal Government to immediately continue funding for this vitally important service,” Sharman Stone said.