A year ago on Tuesday, childcare worker Molly Ticehurst’s battered body was found in her home at Forbes, in central western NSW. Her former partner, Daniel Billings, who had been released on bail for sexually assaulting her, has been charged with her murder.
The anniversary of her death has highlighted the spiralling crisis that threatens to overwhelm attempts to help the victims of domestic violence.
Molly Ticehurst’s body was found in the early hours of April 22, 2024.Credit: Stephen Kiprillis
The Herald’s chief reporter Jordan Baker writes that despite nationwide fury at Ticehurst’s death leading to tougher bail laws, frontline services remain critically underfunded and have not had a baseline increase for a decade. Around 96 per cent of specialist services have reported increased demand since March last year.
A Domestic Violence NSW survey of services found a two-month average wait for critical support for domestic violence victims in NSW, and each service has an average of 33 people on their waiting list. Domestic violence-related assault has grown every year since 2021, and apprehended domestic violence orders continue to climb. Horrendously, 39 adults and children died from DV-related murder in NSW last year.
DVNSW chief executive Delia Donovan said frontline workers were burning out as they tried to help victims of a crime that kept growing in volume and complexity. “They are at breaking point,” she said.
Introduction of coercive control laws in NSW last winter has also increased demand for domestic violence services as women realise what they’ve been enduring is neither normal nor acceptable. The Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research recorded 157 coercive control incidents, mostly involving harassment, threats and intimidation, and humiliation. Women are also taking it on themselves to self-report and are not always recorded on police statistics, but anecdotally, services report a doubling of referrals.
A KPMG report prepared for the Department of Social Services put the cost of domestic and family violence in Australia in 2015-16 at $28 billion in today’s money. DVNSW’s Donovan said the sector needed sustained funding and an immediate injection of $163 million in the state budget. “Without funding the sector on the front line, we’re heading into dire circumstances,” she warned.
State governments are responsible for delivery of services on domestic violence, and we urge the Minns government to get real on domestic violence. But the federal government should be setting the agenda on an issue that crosses state borders.
Australia was appalled when Rosie Batty’s 11-year-old son, Luke Batty, was murdered by his father in 2014. A decade later, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese could still openly lament that domestic violence was a “national crisis”. He committed to ending domestic and sexual violence in a generation.
Australians know domestic violence affects everyone, but that phrase is so worn and laced by continuing official inertia that politicians seem to have lost sight of the things that truly matter. On Tuesday, as we honour the first anniversary of Ticehurst’s death, it is absurd that domestic violence has barely rated a mention in the federal election campaign.
If you or anyone you know needs support, call Lifeline on 131 114, beyondblue on 1800 512 348, Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).