Wodonga community walks to ends family violence, and discusses issues in La Trobe forum

For the second year, Junction Support Services, Wodonga Police and the Department of Health and Human Services led the event.

Junction's Barry McIntosh said he had witnessed violence throughout his 35-year policing career.

"I investigated the fatal results of domestic violence, which involved both male and female offenders," he said.

"I was also the son of a violent and alcoholic father; he was everybody's friend during the day, and at night under the influence of alcohol he turned into my mother's worst nightmare.

"I was that little seven-year-old boy who sat at the end of his bed listening to the arguments down the corridor, waiting for that change in pitch.

"Ultimately that pitch did change one night, and between my mother and I we managed to get the knife off my father and escape.

"We lived in various converted garages over the years .... my mother worked two jobs.

"I think it's important that through my work, I've tried to ensure there's not as many little Barrys around, but sadly I know tonight there will be.

"It's important today's group shows a strength together to do something to stop this."

The walk from St Stephen's Church to Junction Square involved organisations like North East Water and the Rotary Club of Albury, and police.

Detective Senior Sergeant Damien Peppler, who took over managing the Wodonga and Wangaratta family violence investigation units four weeks ago, shared a personal account of a woman reaching out to him personally, who in 2012 "would have fallen through the cracks".

"It was because of my training I was able to pick it up ... it's not always a serious assault, it's the controlling behaviour," he said.

"We've put so much effort into our training that we are better equipped now to look after you.

"She kept on seeking out those leaders in society, and there's going to be so many leaders here today, who could pick up on those little things - and that might open a door."

Wodonga councillor Kat Bennett began her speech with an acknowledgment "to the 51 women who this year in Australia have lost their life to family and domestic violence".

"When I did this acknowledgement last week, it was at 50," she said.

"Every person, sporting club, workplace and school needs to play a role in addressing those harmful beliefs and attitudes that facilitate family violence."

Cr Bennett spoke about Wodonga Council's 16 Days of Activism and and actions of the Wodonga Family Violence Taskforce.

"Some of the things we're looking at is how to help our media better report these issues, and working with our workplaces in terms of implementing an action plan," she said.

"This is such a huge issue, that literally everyone needs to be hands on deck."

Cr Bennett also formed part of a panel discussion at a forum held at La Trobe University after the walk, about family violence and cross-border issues and solutions.

She was joined by Albury deputy mayor Amanda Cohn, and Janine Bussell and Danielle Thompson, who are the respective co-ordinators of the Ovens Murray Risk Assessment and Management Panel and the Safety Action Meetings.

Each group consists of family violence specialist organisations, police, and representatives from homelessness and health services, and they meet frequently to consider cases of people at a high risk of injury or death.

Ms Bussell said what had made a big difference to their work was the national domestic violence order scheme.

"We had new laws introduced on the November 25, 2017, where all domestic and family violence orders became national, rather than state-based," she said.

"That ensures that if a victim-survivor has taken out an order in a Victorian court, and she goes to NSW, she is still protected by that order.

"However, that's one of many things that we can continue working on, because the issues are vast and it is very difficult to gain timely information.

"That can be things like outcomes from court, release dates, conditions around parole orders."

Ms Bussell shared one example where to find information from a Sydney court, she was told it could be a two-hour wait on the phone.

Information-sharing cross-border is an issue, but Ms Thompson said that process within the NSW system was also less advanced than what is is south of the border.

"A lot of people don't necessarily have dealings with police; they might present at a GP," she said.

"The domestic violence assessment tool is not broadly used, which means a lot of people are at serious risk out there who don't get picked up.

"While we put really tight action plans in place ... we're not as well-resourced as our Victorian counterparts.

"We need support systems and funding so those action plans can be enacted, without the onus being put on one organisation.

"Homelessness services pick up a bulk of work ... there's a huge reliance on police to do compliance checks."

Albury Wodonga Family and Domestic Violence Committee chair Amanda Cohn said the NSW side also needed a "one-stop-shop".

"Not all cases qualify to be at the SAM or the RAMP, because their eligibility is for serious risk only," she said.

"The vast majority of my patients [at Gateway Health] would never come across their desk.

"When I'm finally ready to make a plan, there's only one thing I need to know before I decide the next step; what their postcode is, unfortunately, because the services in Albury-Wodonga are working in silos.

"We have the Centre Against Violence in Wodonga, but in NSW what service I can refer my patient too depends whether there are mental health, drug and alcohol, or sexual assault issues - because all their services are funding separately ... there isn't a one-stop-shop on the NSW side.

"Goodwill is strong to try to coordinate the best path for someone ... but it often puts an onus on the person because they might have to see five or six different people as part of this service.

"It's really sub-optimal."

Dr Cohn also said more resourcing for Men's Behaviour Change Programs were also critically important and securing one in Albury was a goal of her committee.

"There's currently one at Gateway Health in Wodonga, funded by the Victorian government, but that program doesn't accept men who live in Albury," she said.

"There are services in Wagga, but that's a huge ask.

"[We need] to have our own service here in Albury, or funding from the NSW government so people from Albury can be seen at Wodonga."

Dr Cohn said the Victorian government "wasn't off the hook" and made a direct address to Victorian Cross Border Commissioner Luke Wilson, and Parliamentary Secretary Danielle Green, who earlier addressed the forum.

"There's services we do have [in Wodonga] that don't accept patients who live in NSW," she said.

"If I can urge you to think about this as a priority ... women are really dying because of this issue, and there's a lot the Victorian government could still be doing to improve things for us on the Border."

Ms Green reflected on the cultural change that has occurred and said "there's a far way to go".

"One of the first things we [the Labor Party] did in our first 100 days of government ... was we introduced the legislation to establish the family violence royal commission," she said.

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"This year we're actually running ahead at more than one woman per week who is losing their life.

"As Rosie Batty said, if that many people were being killed by terrorism, I think a lot more money would be being spent on it.

"There's a far way to go but never forget the big steps forward we've made."