Whittlesea council has defended its decision not to fund a family violence project, citing its commitment to employ a family violence community safety officer and investment in other family violence programs.
Thirty-one submissions were lodged with the council in response to its 2014-15 budget. Eight of those submissions related to the council’s decision not to allocate $20,000 to support an early-intervention family violence project.
The money would have been used to continue funding small, one-off grants to new or established women’s groups that have been given training, access to information about their rights, legal information and support services, and been encouraged to connect with other local women.
The eight submissions argued that the project, part of Whittlesea’s CALD Community Family Violence Project, had been tested, evaluated and led by a team of nine agencies that had been delivering the initiative over two years.
A submission from Zoe Sweett, of Kildonan UnitingCare’s Family Violence Intervention Program, said the project represented an excellent use of ratepayer funding.
But Whittlesea mayor Ricky Kirkham said the council had committed more than $100,000 in the 2015-16 budget as ongoing funding to employ a family violence community safety officer. “Council also donated over $20,000 from our 2014 charity golf day to Salvation Army Crossroads, supporting its family violence initiatives,” he said.
For the past two years the project has been jointly funded by the Scanlon Foundation and the Victorian Women’s Trust.
Whittlesea Community Connections is among the nine agencies to deliver the program. Its chief executive officer and steering group chairman, Jemal Ahmet, said they approached Whittlesea council to fund the third round of the women’s support groups because the council had been so active in promoting the priority of tackling family violence.
He said the issue was too important for posturing and word-games. “Council has an obligation to show leadership in this area and, given its seriousness, to walk the walk and not just talk the talk,” Mr Ahmet said.
“This was an opportunity for them to do that and they chose to pass it up.”
Star Weekly attempted to contact the Scanlan Foundation for comment.
