Poll reveals 76% think family violence is as big or bigger threat than terrrorism and advocates call for it to be funded in proportion to the scale of the problem

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The Australian of the Year, Rosie Batty, has called on governments to reassess their priorities, after a new poll suggested three in four people believed family violence was at least as big a threat as terrorism.

The poll, conducted by Essential Research, asked 1,006 people whether they though family violence was more of a threat, or less of a threat, than terrorism to Australians.

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About 48% replied that it was more of a threat and 26% said it was about the same level of threat – a total of 74%. Just 18% believed it was less of a threat, while 8% said they did not know.

The poll question – which began with a statement that family violence “has been described as ‘family terrorism’ - was commissioned by Fair Agenda, a group campaigning for equality for women.



It was part of Essential Research’s “weekly omnibus” poll conducted online from 10 to 12 June, with the results weighted to reflect population characteristics.

The poll results were released on Monday, a day after reports emerged of women being turned away from refuges in New South Wales because of a lack of vacancies. Fairfax Media reported that almost 90% of the state’s women’s refuges were full.

The NSW minister for community and families services, Brad Hazzard, conceded the system was not “perfect”.

He said the number of services had increased over the past year but he was open to considering extra funding because “unfortunately the number of domestic violence incidents is also far greater and growing”.



Batty, in a statement accompanying the Essential poll results, said the nation needed “to reassess our priorities”.



“We’re spending hundreds of millions extra on the war on terrorism, but women who fear for their safety are still being turned away from services because of a lack of funds,” she said.

“Women and children are dying because of family violence and we need to see a commensurate response.

“There is no shortage of goodwill from our leaders, but we need words put into action including increased funding of family violence services. Every day they wait, more lives are put at significant risk.”

Fair Agenda’s executive director, Renee Carr, said the nation was “in the midst of a family violence epidemic, yet inadequate government funding means thousands of women are still being turned away from the services that should be helping keep them safe”.

The Council of Australian Governments (Coag) discussed the issue in Canberra in April and committed to work to ensure domestic violence orders were recognised across state boundaries.

Batty and the former Victorian police chief commissioner Ken Lay are involved in a Coag advisory council that is looking at the current approaches by all governments and will recommend areas where they could provide greater leadership.

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The federal government has previously defended its commitment to addressing “the scourge of domestic violence”, pointing to an allocation of $100m over four years to support actions under the national plan to reduce violence against women and children.



It has also pointed to the allocation of $230m for a two-year extension of the national partnership agreement on homelessness “with funding priority given to frontline services focusing on women and children experiencing domestic and family violence”.