Broken Ballerina founder speaks about domestic violence in Mackay

Stop trying to find a cure and work on providing the best possible support. That is the message from the founder of a Mackay domestic violence advocacy group. Read where she thinks the region goes wrong in supporting victims here.

There is no cure.

Domestic violence will most likely always be a part of society.

So governments should stop trying to find a cure, according to Mackay-based support organisation Broken Ballerina’s founder Jules Thompson.

Ms Thompson said in her time supporting victims she had witnessed the lacklustre impact of a counselling-focused approach to support.

She believes support should start at the “ground floor” and instead the priority should be housing, financial guidance and assistance, help with their children and medical support.

Broken Ballerina Foundation director Jules Thompson comforting a fellow victim of domestic violence at the Red Rose Rally in Mackay last year.

Ms Thompson ridiculed the suggestion that a government’s law changes could end domestic violence.

“I actually laugh out loud when I see these people in suits saying they are going to end DV and ‘draw a line’,” she said.

“I think they are saying it because it is the trendy thing to say and a lot of people are piggy-backing off DV, instead of getting in and getting their hands dirty and actually addressing it.

“It actually needs to be dealt with on the ground level so that these women, mainly women, that are fleeing domestic violence have got that safety net so that it doesn’t get so hard that they feel the only way they can survive is to go back to the perpetrator.”

Ms Thompson believes the current approach taken by many of the region’s support organisations in Mackay is letting victims down.

“Counselling is not the be all and end all to help a victim of DV,” she said.

“What is happening is that these women are going and having counselling and then it becomes all too hard and they go back to the perpetrator, so it puts a strain on the system.

“They are literally doing circles, many of these women and children.”

She has found the counselling-focused services receive the bulk of the government funding and generous donations, and yet they cannot deliver the tangible aid she believes should be the priority.

“They get so much funding and we get a lot of pressure put on us because people are coming to us for help because the maximum gift card they can get off them is $30 which is supposed to feed a woman and her three kids,” Ms Thompson said.

The Broken Ballerina founder described the “sad reality” many refuge-seeking victims in Mackay are faced with.

“They expect her to be able to move in with kids into a rental property without any furniture,” she said.

“All they said to her is ‘can you go to CASA and get a $2000 no interest loan to buy a fridge and a washing machine’.

“When they are faced with the local women’s centre offering tinned food to a woman for her and her three kids when they’ve come from a lifestyle where they had their own home, they had nice things, they had nice food - their kids are not going to eat tinned food.

“I don’t know about you but if you don’t have a car and you don’t have money, and you’ve just fled domestic violence and you’ve got no resources, how are these women supposed to navigate the system to be able to do that.”

Her message comes after it was recently announced Mackay would not be among the regions set to receive a specialist domestic and family violence court.

Minister for Women and Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence Shannon Fentiman said the government was “absolutely committed” to frontline domestic violence services. Picture: Liam Kidston.

Minister for Women and Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence Shannon Fentiman said the government was “absolutely committed to making sure our hardworking frontline domestic, family and sexual violence services have the resources they need to support victim when they need it most”.

“Earlier this month I was in Mackay to announce more than $900,000 in extra funding for services in the Mackay-Whitsunday region as part of our $22.5 million boost to services across the state,” she said.

“We are also investing around $3 million to upgrade the Mackay Courthouse to make it safer for victims attending court.

“It is vital that help is available for women when escaping violence and there are brokerage and emergency crisis payments available to support victims with their immediate needs.”

The government’s total funding for sexual, domestic and family violence services in the Mackay and Whitsunday region in the 2022-23 financial year exceeds $5 million.

Originally published as Broken Ballerina founder speaks about domestic violence in Mackay