Albury-Wodonga Women's Centre calls for more funding from Victoria

The NSW government provides nearly 90 per cent of funding to the Women's Centre for Health and Wellbeing Albury-Wodonga, while the Victoria government provides about 10 per cent.

But the centre's general manager Marge Nichol said 34 per cent of clients were from Victoria.

"At the moment they (Victoria) give us $48,000 a year," she said.

"But we need more counsellors and we need to bring that wait list down."

Ms Nichol said that $48,000 in funding only covered up to 12 women, at $4000 per client, seeking support for domestic violence a year.

But she said so far this year 133 Victorian women had already sought that type of assistance, so the centre should have received $532,000 from the Victorian government.

"There's a big difference," she said.

"If you came in now ... we might not be able to see you for three months ... but if we've got the funding we can have the (three extra counselling) staff and get that wait list down."

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Ms Nichol said it was "crushing" for women to wait for support after being brave enough to seek help in the first place.

"They don't feel supported, sometimes they end up homeless with their kids sleeping in a car, it just feels like everyone abandons them," she said.

"Then they just give up and you don't see them again for another two, three, four, five years and then they come back and the situation is worse."

Ms Nichol said it was sad the women's centre was being limited in helping people when it could handle so much more with more funding for extra staff.

Member for Northern Victoria Tania Maxwell raised the funding shortfall in Victorian Parliament on May 26 and a meeting between Victoria's Family Violence Prevention Minister Ros Spence and the centre will be held to discuss the issue.

Ms Maxwell said it was imperative that governments realised funding should be given to meet the needs of all people, not just a set number.

"We need to take the politics out of it and ensure that governments are prepared to collaborate and consult," she said.

"When you're looking at something like the women's centre in particular, it shouldn't be about numbers, it should be about that we service groups of women and so there should be equality coming through in that funding.

"As we know you have swings and roundabouts there could be 10 women from NSW and 20 women from Victoria, but that can swap and change, so we need to push governments to say we will both invest equally in that funding to support those women."

The meeting place and time is yet to be confirmed.

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