Federal Budget 2021: Funding boost for domestic violence help and prevention of workplace harrassment

Cash payments of $1500 will be given to women fleeing violent relationships as part of the Budget’s new women’s safety package which has more than doubled existing funding. A total of $1.1 billion of new funding has been dedicated in the Budget to women’s safety measures, with an extra $20.5 million to be spent on preventing workplace sexual harassment. The extra funding comes after backlash of the Morrison Government over its treatment of women within its own party after ex-staffer Brittany Higgins revealed she was allegedly raped in then-Defence Minister Linda Reynolds’ office. The 2020 Budget was criticised for not doing enough for women. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said all Australians had a right to be safe but this was “not the reality for too many women”. “One in four women experience violence from a current or former partner. This must stop,” he said. “(We are) delivering more emergency accommodation, more legal assistance, more counselling, more financial support.” Among the new measures is a two-year pilot program which will give women escaping abusive relationship immediate financial assistance. Eligible women will be able to access a total of $5000 which will include immediate $1500 cash payments and $3,500 in kind for goods or direct payments of bonds, school fees or other items. Community service providers will deliver the program and it is estimated it will help 24,000 women. Eligibility guidelines are yet to be decided, however it is expected that while women will need to provide “robust evidence” it won’t be necessary that a police report has been filed to access the scheme. Another pilot is being funded by Services Australia to provide specialist case management to victims This program will use a “tell us once approach” where victims only need to relay their experience of violence once to ensure they are not being re-traumatised by being made to repeat their story to multiple different services. In primary prevention, $35.1 million is being spent on expanding national anti-violence campaigns including new ones targeting young people on issues like consent. Extra money is also being pumped into programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people which aim to reduce violence. This includes funding for a new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Safety Survey. This will be run by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to gather better data on the prevalence of family and sexual violence among First Nations people. To reduce sexual harassment $9.3 million is being spent to implement the recommendations made in the Sex Discrimination Commissioner’s Respect@Work report. The eSafety Commissioner’s investigation team will also be boosted with an extra $18 million in funding. This will allow it to respond more quickly to reports of online harassment of which women are the majority of victims.