FULL COVERAGE: How the 2017-18 state budget will affect central Victoria
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UPDATE 5.30pm: Annie North women’s refuge chief executive officer Julie Oberin has welcomed what she called an “amazing investment” in family violence services in Tuesday’s state budget.
Ms Oberin said the “unprecedented” $1.9 billion cash injection demonstrated the Andrews government was honouring its commitment to recommendations stemming from the Royal Commission into Family Violence.
“It’s just so welcome to see that this investment is genuine and that it’s more than it was last year and we thought last year was pretty impressive,” she said.
“It means that they are serious about doing what the royal commission recommended so it’s very welcome for us who have been working away in this area for a very long time without many resources or commitments from previous governments.”
Ms Oberin said the funding would mean services in Bendigo would be better placed to support women and children fleeing family violence.
“It will mean more resources and staff for both the Centre for Non-Violence and and the Annie North refuge, it will mean more focus on therapeutic recovery, for children in particular, it will mean more exit points into rapid rehousing for women so that frees up refuge space for other women and children coming in,” she said.
“Hopefully it will mean an increase in capacity for men’s behaviour change programs across the region.”
Ms Oberin also welcomed $448 million in funding for the establishment of 17 support and safety hubs across the state, one of which is expected to be located in Bendigo.
“They’re doing a lot of consultation with people who work in the area but also with women with lived experience of violence about what a safety a support hub looks like and it looks difference in every place,” she said.
EARLIER: The Bendigo Law Association has welcomed a funding commitment in today’s state budget to plan for the “modernisation and expansion” of the Bendigo Law Courts.
The budget, tabled in parliament this afternoon, includes $3.9 million to “develop plans to address current and future demand pressures so cases can be heard sooner”.
BLA vice president Juliana Smith said while the organisation would have more to say once details of the plan became clearer, the announcement was a welcome one.
“Some action to improve the services and security has been necessary and we’ve been looking forward to it for some time,” she said.
Less welcome was a lack of funds in the budget to establish a specialist family violence court in Bendigo, with the city overlooked in a $130 million plan to create five of the specialist facilities across the state.
Ms Smith described the decision as “disappointing”, saying important facilities like separate meeting rooms for family violence victims were unavailable in the current courthouse.
“All the parties are in the same area so it creates difficulty when there are high level conflicts and possibly security issues,” she said.
“There’s been improvements in security and that needs to be noted, there’s certainly been improvements but there’s long way to go.”
“It’s a beautiful building but it doesn’t meet the modern day demands.”