An anti-rape organisation says NSW services have been snubbed out of a federal funding package worth more than a quarter of a billion dollars.
None of the $260 million allocated by the Commonwealth under a national partnership agreement to combat family, domestic and sexual violence has been spent on rape victim services in NSW, according to Full Stop Australia.
The non-profit organisation has been tasked by the state government to run a 24-hour helpline for victims but says it’s underfunded and struggling to meet the demand from survivors.
One third of calls to the NSW Sexual Violence Helpline went unanswered last year, the non-profit said.
“Sexual violence frontline services have been forgotten in NSW,” Full Stop Australia chief executive Hayley Foster said.
Federal Families and Social Services Minister Anne Ruston, who manages the federal funding package, said through her office it was up to the states and territories how they choose to divide up their portion of the money between servicxjmtzywes combating family, domestic and sexual violence.
Full Stop Australia says the state government has chosen to spend all the money on family and domestic violence and none on sexual violence services.
NSW received about $20 million from the fund on January 7, the most out of any jurisdiction. The majority of the funding is yet to be handed out by the Commonwealth.
The NSW minister responsible for preventing sexual violence, Natalie Ward, told a budget estimates hearing on Tuesday she had no idea if any of the money had gone to sexual violence services or not.
“In relation to those specifics, I might take that on notice,” she said.
Ms Ward added the sexual violence survivor helpline was funded by NSW Health as part of its general responsibility of funding sexual assault services.
However, the national partnership agreement funding would be spent through the Department of Communities and Justice, and there was a chance sexual violence services could be funded with some of that money, a top department official told the hearing.
“The NPA funding is considering initiatives for sexual violence as well as domestic and family violence, and there’s also a focus on prevention, though not so much on direct service provision,” acting DCJ deputy secretary for strategy policy and commissioning Anne Campbell said.
NSW Health said it had provided $1.5 million to the helpline in the past financial year.
Sexual assault is the only type of crime on the rise in NSW apart from domestic violence.
Full Stop Australia said a 22 per cent increase in sexual assault reports during the coronavirus pandemic had been felt by its frontline staffers, who struggle to keep up with the high volume of calls.
“Last year alone, the NSW Sexual Violence Helpline received 14,089 calls and online contacts, yet because of the lack of funding, one in three of those calls went unanswered,” Ms Foster said.
The helpline hasn’t received an increase in funding in a decade, despite a sharp increase in reporting of sexual violence in that time, Ms Foster said.
She said callers would not care who funded the service, as long as they could get hold of a counsellor.
“We can't play political football with sexual violence services,” Ms Foster said.
“The helpline is not a luxury – it’s an essential service.”
