“It’s hard to imagine the real impact until you see a photo like what was in the paper – when you see a victim in that space, it’s powerful.”
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The picture in Saturday’s Border Mail of an Albury woman allegedly bashed by a man who breached an apprehended violence order hit home for Jenny Aitchison.
The NSW opposition spokeswoman for domestic violence saw it as an opportunity to hear directly from a survivor how she could have been better protected.
After meeting the 26-year-old, Ms Aitchison now plans to hold a round-table with Border support services.
“To me, in Victoria there seems to be more co-ordination; they deal with their refuges very differently to NSW,” she said.
“They get women moved out of trouble – whereas in NSW, it’s often a closed door as there’s no space.”
Danielle Thompson, program manager for the YES Youth and Family Services’ women’s refuge, Betty’s Place, agreed Victoria were “a few steps ahead of NSW” in the approach to domestic violence.
“Their safety action meetings are already in place – police and services are coming together and determining what can be done around the safety of women and children,” she said.
Ms Thompson said SAMs would be implemented north of the Border.
“With reforms NSW is going through, the onus will be on SAMs, where there will be a need for police, services like ours, and other parties to get to the table and actually plan,” she said.
“They are happening informally, but they will rolled out formally in the Albury area in the next couple years.”
Ms Aitchison said the state-wide reforms weren’t happening fast enough.
“Safety action meetings are only in about six local commands so far,” she said.
“They are doing roll-outs this year, but six years is a long time to have waited.”
Ms Aitchison said pushing along legislation to improve cross-border recognition of AVOs was another priority at a policy level.
But in a community space, she urged Border residents, councils and media to take a page out of Maitland’s book, where she is the local MP.
“In the same week of September 2015, a 12-year-old girl was beaten and raped by her step father and died, and another woman had a hammer put through her head by her partner,” Ms Aitchison said.
“That drove a campaign.
“We had ‘Say No to Violence’ coffee cups in cafes, a tackling violence program across all sports codes, and police holding stalls for people to sign the pledge.
“Our domestic violence incidence dropped.
“For us to get a 10 per cent decrease for December – that’s an important message.”
