March 2015 - Sky News
Social Services Minister Scott Morrison says the extra two years of funding, announced on Monday, will give the Commonwealth time to work with the states and territories to review where the responsibility for homeless services lies.
'It's principally a state responsibility but this enables us to add serious value and use some national focus to priorities on domestic violence,' he told Sky News.
Mr Morrison said spending under the former Labor government was 'very woolly' with money not necessarily getting to where it was most needed.
As well as helping women and children made homeless from domestic violence, the federal government wants a focus on youth homelessness.
'We need to add value, not just shovel money out the door ... and the states just spent it wherever they wanted to,' Mr Morrison said.
The peak body for homelessness services said its members were relieved to see the end of uncertainty around funding.
Last week the Senate Finance Committee recommended a reversal of funding cuts from community legal services and front line domestic violence services including housing and homelessness services.
In an interim report, the committee said more than $100 million in funding cuts should be restored to community legal centres as well as emergency accommodation and shelter services, along with a $200 million increase to the funding of federal and state legal assistance services.
Helen Brereton, Executive Officer of NSW Women’s Domestic Violence Court Advocacy Service, said the report should act as a catalyst for further action at all levels of government.
'The time for talking has been and gone,' she said. 'This Senate Committee report echoes what we hear from report after report, and what we know from working on the ground.'
The Senate report recognised the role of community legal services in implementing reforms such as the Safer Pathway Local Coordination Points scheme in NSW. The scheme aims to provide an integrated response to domestic violence across a range of government services and agencies including police and public housing.
Rochelle, a frontline worker at the Waverley Local Coordination Point said she had seen an 'overwhelmingly positive response from women' to the new scheme.
'One client said to me, “If only this new response had been available to me when I first tried to leave my partner.”'
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