Budget 2021: ‘Escape money’ for vulnerable women

Women escaping violence will be able to access $1500 and funding for rent, school fees and furniture.

The budget funding recognises that women from all backgrounds experience domestic violence.

Women escaping violent relationships will be able to access $1500 emergency cash payments and funding for rent, school fees and buying furniture under a $3.4bn package designed to improve women’s safety, economic security and health.

After facing months of controversy over its treatment of women, the Morrison government has handed down an 81-page women’s budget statement — its third since 2018 — that includes $1.1bn for women’s safety, a $1.7bn investment in childcare and $350m for health and wellbeing measures.

While many of the big-ticket items had already been announced, such as increased subsidies for parents of more than one child in care, the statement reveals a $164.8m, two-year trial program to offer women the cash payments and goods worth up to $3500 after fleeing domestic violence. The $3500 could also go to bond for a rental property or legal assistance.

The measure recognises that women — one of whom is on average killed every nine days — from all backgrounds experience domestic violence.

As the government develops a fifth national action plan to prevent violence against women and children, measures in the budget statement show a new focus on the most vulnerable groups — Indigenous Australians, those with disabilities and refugees.

Funding worth $57.6m will support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women breaking the cycle of violence, $10.3m will see refugees on temporary visas continue to be able to access up to $3000 to cover expenses such as food and accommodation, and $9.3m will go towards preventing violence against women and girls with a disability.

A target has been set for the first time to reduce rates of all family violence and abuse against Indigenous women and children by at least 50 per cent by 2031.

“Our approach to developing this women’s budget statement has been informed by our values of respect, dignity, choice, equality of opportunity and justice – these are fundamental to the safety and economic security of women in Australia,” Scott Morrison said.

Two-thirds of women who have experienced physical or sexual violence by a current or former partner since March last year reported it started or escalated after the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Another pilot program to be delivered by Services Australia will ensure victims and survivors need to tell their story only once, while the government has pledged up to $261.4m over two years in a new national partnership with the states to bolster frontline support.

Retirement savings will also receive a boost after the government announced it would remove the $450-a-month threshold under which employers do not have to pay workers the super guarantee, predominantly helping those on lower incomes and women.

Women and children will be the beneficiaries of a $26.2m investment to “create a safe space online” as the eSafety Commissioner is told to expand investigations into image-based abuse, adult cyber abuse, cyber bullying and harmful online content.

The majority of this is experienced by women, the statement said, while $3m will help the commissioner identify intimate images that have been shared without consent and rapidly remove them.

About 230 women pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and maths will be supported by a $42.4m, seven-year investment to undertake higher-level STEM qualifications.

An extra $9.3m will help implement recommendations from Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins’ Respect@Work report after her landmark inquiry into sexual harassment in the workplace.