Sorry, we have blocked access to the information you are after to protect the security of our website. If you think you have been unfairly blocked, please call Customer Service on 1300 658 700 and quote the Event ID and Session ID shown below.Brandon Calder Homes, national award-winning custom builders, mid north coast NSW, has over 20 years local experience and has subsequently built up great relations with excellent skilled tradespeople and reliable suppliers and talented consultants. On this section of the website we are happy to recommend our associates and add links to their websites.There was a lunch in Eden, in the state’s south, on Wednesday, where a large crowd turned out to mark the closing, after seven years, of the local domestic violence outreach service. It had been attached to the Bega Women’s Refuge which is being handed over to Mission Australia as part of the state government’s Going Home, Staying Home homelessness reforms, and which is now limping along, most of its staff having gone or been let go, and unable to take in women fleeing violence.
A woman from Nowra seeking refuge at Bega recently was turned away, Gabrielle Powell from Bega Women’s Resource Centre told me. She had also heard of another woman who had rung the Domestic Violence Hotline only to be told that she might be able to find a bed in Darwin. Such is the sad and chaotic state of affairs following the “reforms” to homelessness funding and services that have had the (unintended?) consequence of dismantling the 40-year-old women’s refuge services sector. A few weeks ago in this newspaper, in response to my previous column on this subject, Gabrielle Upton, the Minister for Family and Community Services, accused me of making “false” claims that refuges and women’s only services were set to close. Well, Minister, in case your staff has kept you in the dark about this, you need to be aware that a number of services have closed (Eden, Erin’s Place in Lane Cove, Killara in Randwick, Innari Housing in Marrickville, Katakuku Women’s Housing, Wyong and Lotus House Indo-Chinese Young Women’s refuge to name those I have been able to confirm) while others are being transfomed beyond recognition and with the likelihood they will no longer be able to deliver the specialist
and sensitive services needed by women (and children) in crisis. (Asking refuge workers to fill in a 20-page referral form for women seeking emergency help, as happened this week with one of the large faith-based organisations that have “won” control of most of the refuges, is not the way to do it.) In the past fortnight, the staff of Elsie Women’s Refuge, Sydney’s oldest and the first feminist refuge, have all been made redundant in anticipation of Elsie being handed over to St Vincent de Paul on September 1. So too have the staff of Delores Single Women’s Refuge at Bondi Junction. These dedicated inner-city workers were all offered the chance to apply for positions at Blacktown and/or Wilcannia and when they declined, they were to quote one of them, “given their marching orders”. They will all finish up on August 29. I have spoken to a number of women who have had past or present involvement in the women’s refuge movement and, like me, everyone is reeling in shock at what has happened.
That it came without warning, that there was no piloting of the new arrangements, that there was simply no category for some existing services to apply for, that policies to address homelessness swallowed up the specialist issues around domestic violence – all these aspects of the “reforms” have left service-providers in a state of disbelief. “There was no consultation,” Jozefa Sobski, convenor of Women’s Electoral Lobby NSW, told me. “We had no idea”. WEL is seeking an urgent meeting with the Minister to voice its concerns. “They’ve stolen our refuges,” a long-time women’s activist said. And that, indeed, is the nub of what’s happened. Even where refuges will stay open and keep their old names many will change – in staffing, in function and in character. Marion Hosking, who helped set up the women’s refuge in Taree in the late 1970s told me of a recent meeting of 70 people on a freezing night to protest the handing over of their refuge to the Samaritans who will open its doors to men as well as women fleeing violence from men: “Women cried, some attempted to speak but could not
, men cried”, she said. Figures from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research reveal a state-wide 2.5 per cent increase in domestic violence-related assault in the quarter to March – at a time when other major offences are showing significant decline. The increase in domestic violence is even higher in some areas: up 13 per cent in the south west of Greater Sydney and 14.3 per cent in the outer west and Blue Mountains. This would not seem to be the time to be shutting down or reducing the services available to women fleeing such violence. Yet Mission Australia plans to turn the large house in Randwick that was Killara Women’s Refuge into transitional housing for just one family. At Eden, among those mourning the loss of the service were former “clients” and lots of locals including, ominously, the police who, more than most, know that once refuges close there is nowhere to take women and kids trying to escape violence. “The police are often placing women in refuges like Elsie’s on a Saturday night,” a domestic violence lawyer told me.
“I just can’t imagine what it’s going to be like for police, and for women, in rural areas”. In places like Eden, Bega, Moruya, Kempsey, Armidale, the Blue Mountains, Wyong, Wagga Wagga, Tumut, Wollongong where they did not win tenders, refuges have either already closed or are contemplating their bleak future.Timbers are available at Bransons Building Materials based at Sydney for Hardwood Decks and Treated Pine Decks including a large range of Tropical Hardwoods for Building Decking at Sydney based showroom. Now in stock are, Merbau, Northern Box & Belian, and Australian Hardwoods such as Spotted Gum, Red & Grey Ironbark, Brushbox, Blackbutt, Tallowood, Grey Box, Grey Gum, Red & White Mahogany and Turpentine to name a few. Our Treated Pine is first grade (Arsenic Free) kiln dried.If you are looking to replace your deck or building decking a new one, we have a team of specialist deck builders with full licenses and insurances available to give you a free on site quote for building decking at Sydney, Sutherland Shire and new NSW.