No to Violence welcomes today’s announcement from the NSW Government of a $230 million package over four years to improve responses to domestic, family and sexual violence in NSW.  

The package is a positive step towards addressing the family violence crisis in NSW. Importantly, it recognises the highly specialist skillset needed to respond to domestic and family violence, with expanded funding for the Women’s Domestic Violence Court Advocacy Program and increased funding for workers who support children accompanying their mothers to refuges.  

We were pleased to see $5m in funding for research on perpetration and effective interventions to stop family violence to keep women and children safe. This research will be a positive step towards developing a deeper understanding of men’s pathways into and out of using domestic and family violence: it needs to centre victim-survivors’ experiences and specialist family violence knowledge. This funding presents an important opportunity to learn from and support those doing the work at the frontline, including our members. 

We were also pleased to see $2.1 million over two years to improve and continue the Corrective Services program EQUIPS Domestic and Family Violence, delivered to offenders in custody and under supervision in the community to prevent reoffending.  

These are important initiatives, and we welcome the recognition from the Government that we need to understand why and how people use family violence. We have been pushing for this recognition in our ongoing engagement with the NSW Government. 

However, in not providing a funding boost for men’s family violence services, these initiatives don’t go far enough. We won’t end family violence until we create the radical change we need to address this problem – including funding services that work with men to stop their use of violence that reflects the real cost of delivering services. 

To do this in NSW, we need:  

An additional $15.18 million per year for Men’s Behaviour Change Programs (MBCPs), which would include:  

• $7.04 million to ensure existing MBCPs are delivered to best practice standards  
• $8.14 million to fund 34 additional 20-week MBCPs (or 13 MBCP locations funded 52 weeks of the year) to clear the approximately 480 men on waitlists  

An additional $4.35 million per year for case management and one-to-one interventions for men using violence  

5-year minimum funding contracts for all specialist domestic, family, and sexual violence services  

A NSW Perpetration Strategy that coordinates efforts to stop men’s use of violence, which would include:  

• A Perpetration Study  
• System analysis and alignment  
• Developing innovative ways to end family violence  
• Monitoring and evaluation framework  

NTV will continue to advocate in NSW for these priorities to strengthen service responses to men’s use of violence.  

Read more: $230 million to improve NSW domestic violence prevention and support | NSW Government