Bendigo's family and sexual violence sector has slammed the lack of housing support in a $1 billion package of measures rolled out after Wednesday's emergency national cabinet meeting.
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The failure to provide more for frontline and prevention services was also criticised.
In a joint response to questions from the Advertiser, four key local support organisations said while they recognised that the government had acted, the announced measures "[fell] short of what is desperately needed in addressing family and sexual violence in Australia."
The reality was that housing remained a significant problem, according to the Centre for Non-Violence, Centre Against Sexual Assault Central Victoria, Women's Health Loddon Mallee and Annie North.
"Even with the payment, in our region there is a scarcity of affordable housing, and we know that family violence is the leading cause of homelessness for women and children in Australia," their statement said.
The organisations said they welcomed the government's commitment to implementing the Leaving Violence program next year but the program provided only short-term support and could be difficult to access while overall there were inadequate "wraparound supports" in place.
Frustration at 'lack of inclusion'
The services expressed deep frustration at what they claimed was "a consistent lack of inclusion" of their sector's expertise in national dialogues.
It was "imperative" to acknowledge that they had been calling for greater investment for over 30 years and to act on their expertise and advice, they said.
"Rather than a rushed announcement in response to 100,000 people marching across Australia calling for action we think that the above investment should be allocated to initiatives and actions from the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022 -2032.
"[W]hile we have over the decades welcomed greater reforms, they have been falling drastically short of what is needed to address men's use of violence against women and children and diverse communities."
Among the urgent needs of the sector were long-term dedicated funding for frontline support and for housing services.
Rallies cry out for action on crisis
The May 1 emergency meeting was prompted by rallies around the country as a "crisis" of men's violence against women resulted in more than two dozen killings in the first four months of 2024.
Following the meeting Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced funding of $925 million for the Leaving Violence Program, which provides $5000 to women - $1500 of it in cash - to help meet the costs of leaving a relationship.
Also announced were agreements with the states on banning "deepfake" pornography, developing a pilot program to block children's access to content like porn and the acceleration of a scheduled review of online safety laws.
Australia's pornography problem
The organisations' said Australia had "a pornography problem" that went well beyond artificial intelligence-generated "deepfake porn".
"While we support legislative reform measures that will protect victims of online sex crimes including deepfake pornography, we also know from recent research that almost one in 10 men are accessing child sex abuse material online," they said.
"We must have this addressed in legislative reform."
