Despite increased investments and a commitment from the Albanese Government to end gender-based violence within a generation, frontline family and domestic violence services in the ACT still face an imminent funding cliff.

Visiting the Domestic Violence Crisis Service (DVCS) in Canberra with CEO Sue Webeck alongside Canberra Rape Crisis Centre (CRC) CEO Tiffany Karlsson, Senator Pocock said more longer-term funding was needed for frontline services.

“We’ve seen the Albanese Government make some very welcome additional investments over the course of this term, and more commitments from the Coalition this campaign but the hard truth is that’s still not meeting need on the ground,” Senator Pocock said.

DVCS now receives 1100 requests each month, up from 850 two years ago and despite a funding extension out to next year, are still operating at an almost $1 million budget deficit as demand for services outstrips investment.

CRCC has insufficient funding to meet current demand and no funding certainty, with all funding expiring in June 2026. CRCC has around 8,000 clients with hundreds of crisis calls, texts and callouts to police and hospitals and hundreds of face to face specialised counselling sessions conducted each month for women, men and child victim survivors and their families. 

Around 1 in 5 women have experienced sexual assault in Canberra, and more than 1 in 3 girls and 1 in 5 boys have experienced child sexual abuse. Demand for specialist frontline sexual violence crisis, education, hospital and police support, court advocacy and counselling services is growing in Canberra.

“These short-term funding cycles have to end. We need to start by fully funding existing services then step up from there. The ACT and Federal Governments must work together to provide at least five-year funding cycles, giving frontline services certainty and the ability to plan long-term,” Senator Pocock said.

DVCS CEO Sue Webeck said, “DVCS will need to reduce its services if the ACT Government assisted by the Commonwealth does not fund the true cost of responding to need in our community 24 hours a day across our 10 program areas. 

“The cost of delivering a service has changed dramatically over the last decade while our base funding model has not, which means people in the ACT are having to wait longer for the support they desperately need. And we, as service providers, can not sustain more political value statements if the budget statements don’t align.”

CRCC CEO Tiffany Karlsson said, "Canberra is in the midst of a silent sexual violence crisis across all parts of our community. With demand for CRCC services rising year on year, and fewer than 10% of victim survivors choosing to report to police, our specialist services are needed now more than ever. 

“CRCC calls on all governments to support the federal election priorities of the National Association of Services Against Sexual Violence (NASASV) to provide an immediate funding injection to the sexual violence sector, to ensure adequate, sustainable funding over 5 year time periods, and to ensure transparency of sexual violence sector funding."

With 24 women murdered in Australia so far this year, including 19 year-old Audrey Griffin on the Central Coast, ACT Independent Senator David Pocock said he had received more than 2,000 emails in the past 24 hours from people in Canberra and across the nation calling for more urgent action.

“People in our community and around the country want more action. They want leaders acknowledging their distress and doing more,” Senator Pocock said.

Senator Pocock said plans were needed to more drastically and quickly increase the supply of public and social homes to enable more people leaving violence to transition out of crisis accommodation and into longer-term, safer and more secure housing.

More funding was needed for specialist services and for men’s behaviour change programs. At the same time access to existing initiatives like the Leaving Violence program needed to be faster and easier with less red tape. Currently only 28% of applications proceed to payment in the ACT, taking an average of 15 days to be assessed. Senator Pocock, alongside 74 other independent and minor party candidates, will also continue to push whoever forms government to raise the rate of safety net payments above the poverty line in line with the expert Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee report’s recommendations. Their latest report highlighted research by Social Ventures Australia and Professor Roslyn Russell examined the effect of government payments on a victim-survivor’s decision to leave a violent relationship. It found those reliant on income support payments were less likely to leave a violent relationship and more likely to cite lack of finances as the main reason why. It also found that victim-survivors who receive government payments are more likely to return to a violent relationship than victim-survivors on salary or wages.

Senator Pocock will also be attending a rally on the Kambri lawns at ANU on Wednesday 30 April at 2pm organised by the Vote4Her campaign.