Djirra is appalled that the Victorian Government has not prioritised Aboriginal women and children’s safety from its $600 million budget surplus.

This comes at a time when violence against Aboriginal women is occurring at epidemic levels. When will our lives matter?

While we welcome the $22 million investment in the Aboriginal Self Determination Fund to support our people on remand or bail, we will continue to see Aboriginal women disproportionately impacted. It is essential that priority is given to funding Djirra’s frontline services and programs to ensure Aboriginal women are safe to remain at home with their children, not criminalised and thrown behind bars. We must have this assurance.

The investment by the Government to operationalise the Wyndam Law Court is welcomed.  Aboriginal women and children experiencing family violence will benefit from having Djirra as their advocate.

Last quarter, in the West alone, we saw a 21% increase in the number of clients. This growth has been consistent since the Djirra in the West opened in July 2023. The West has the fastest growing Aboriginal population in the State and the highest rates of breaches of Intervention Orders.

Djirra in the West is the first step in realising our strategic priority to expand our services regionally so that no Aboriginal woman has to travel any more than 100km or one hour for her safety to access our services and programs. We urge the Government to put Aboriginal women’s safety first and value our lives by investing in our lifesaving solutions and priorities.    

Despite the State Government budget claiming to have ‘Focused on what matters most’, it has chosen to commit $720 million to increasing the number of beds in prisons. It has prioritised this instead of investing in Aboriginal women’s and children’s safety. Punitive, ‘tough on crime’ approaches inevitably mean more Aboriginal women will be racially targeted, criminalised and incarcerated.

Prisons are not safe, and they are not places to heal. Today, close to 90% of Aboriginal women behind bars have experienced family and sexual violence and 80% are mums. Aboriginal women deserve better. The Government can do better by simply prioritising funding for our specialist frontline – not only life saving but life changing – work.

Djirra CEO Antoinette Braybrook AM said:

“While there were some very small wins for Aboriginal women in this budget, it is not enough to save lives. Aboriginal women deserve more than what this budget gave. We have seen Governments falling short and failing Aboriginal women and children, over and over again, for too long now.”

“The demand for Djirra’s services continues to rise. We are not able to pause our work or close our doors because if we do, Aboriginal women and children’s safety will be compromised and their lives taken.”

“In our two decades of working on the frontline of Aboriginal women’s safety, we have had to fight to be heard and invested in. We have only seen the situation get worse for our women and children.  We will not stop. Aboriginal women’s lives, safety and self-determined solutions must be invested in – this is a non-negotiable.”   

We call on the Victorian Government to work with us to ensure Djirra’s life saving work for Aboriginal women and children experiencing family violence, who are at risk of criminalisation and incarceration, is prioritised and invested in. We will not stop.