It's hard to imagine a time when the focus on violence against women and children was greater.

A string of high profile cases have grabbed the public's attention and suddenly we have become brutally aware of just how serious this issue has become for society.

The State Government has owned land in Bendigo to build a much-needed refuge for women and children for five years.

After four years of disappointment, those behind the refuge had reason for hope this time with the project reaching the Budget estimates stage for the first time.

Sadly that hope appears likely to end in disappointment yet again with news the project doesn't appear to have made the Budget cut.

When you consider how many desperate women and children could have been helped in the years governments have procrastinated over this project... it's shameful.

Equally shameful is the case of Amelia McCrohan from Goornong.

How desperate and helpless the McCrohan family must feel to abandon any hope of getting a 'miracle' drug that can change their six-year-old's life forever.

Conditions imposed on Kalydeco mean Amelia will have to get sicker before she can get Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme assistance to get a drug which would cost her family $300,000 a year today.

Have you heard anything so ludicrous? How can any government condone a situation where people who are sick must get sicker to get help?

Let's hope the Victorian government and Federal Health Minister Peter Dutton see the error of their ways for they have the power to make these things right.

We await their responses.