The room is modest – just a dresser and two metal-framed bunk beds fit with thin mattresses. <\/p>\n
At the end of the beds sit towels, a sleeping bag and extra blankets to keep occupants warm in the draughty home.<\/p>\n
A laundry basket sits on the dresser, filled with essentials such as coat hangers, toothpaste, tampons, deodorant, soaps and cleaning supplies.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s frantically being cleaned for its next tenant, who will arrive within hours.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re inside a women\u2019s shelter at an undisclosed Sydney location, where the awful reality of Australia\u2019s domestic violence crisis has been laid bare.<\/p>\n
Here, staff have mastered the art of a quick turnover, keenly aware that every second counts.<\/p>\n
Women, children and girls arrive here daily, when their homes are no longer safe.<\/p>\n
Guests often arrive with little more than the clothes on their backs, forced to leave their belongings and prized possessions behind.<\/p>\n
Often, a partner or parent has attacked them, threatened them, controlled them or made them afraid of what might happen behind a closed door.<\/p>\n
It is a \u201cnational emergency\u201d plaguing Australian homes – yet in women\u2019s shelters across the country, staff are saying no more than they\u2019re saying yes, and rooms are few and far between.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s \u2018national emergency\u2019<\/p>\n
This year alone, 44 women have allegedly been murdered and 19 children have died as a result of domestic violence \u2013 the youngest an eight-week-old baby.<\/p>\n
Inside the secret home of the Women\u2019s and Girls Emergency Centre (WAGEC), there are broken families, first-time mothers and women in their late 80s.<\/p>\n
Here, it\u2019s abundantly clear that violence doesn\u2019t discriminate, affecting women in every corner of society. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think our frontline staff have some of the hardest jobs in the world,\u201d WAGEC director Nicole Yade told news.com.au.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re needing to decide who\u2019s going to get that room tonight and that is a real ethical pain for anyone who does this work.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe demand is overwhelming. Whenever there\u2019s a vacant room, we\u2019re trying to fill that room as quickly as possible because we know there\u2019s so much need in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, family and domestic violence-related offences rose 8 per cent last year, with more than 78 per cent of offenders identifying as male.<\/p>\n
Two in three domestic violence assault victims are women, while three in four offenders are men.<\/p>\n
Additionally, Aboriginal women are eight times more likely to experience domestic and family violence.<\/p>\n
Every death leaves children without mothers and parents without daughters, grief-stricken communities, teachers supporting traumatised students and police, nurses and paramedics finding the body of yet another victim.<\/p>\n
Women are being murdered at disproportionate rates, yet action never appears to go beyond a conversation.<\/p>\n
\u201cDomestic violence cuts across every age group, every ethnic or religious group. This is an issue that affects everyone in our community, no matter where you\u2019re from or what suburb you live in,\u201d said Ms Yade.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a national emergency. It\u2019s costing real women their life. When I look into the faces of the little children that we serve at WAGEC \u2013 they\u2019re just so full of love and potential.\u201d<\/p>\n
As we walk through the home, we pass rooms where young children sit on the floor, playing with toys or flicking through picture books.<\/p>\n
Some are just babies, while others are acutely aware that they are not in their own home.<\/p>\n
According to Ms Yade, it is not uncommon to see children come in with injuries.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the kids come in, they\u2019re confused and trying to make sense of why this is happening,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey want to be happy, they want to be like the other kids. They want to just get on with their learning and their friendships and the things kids should be getting on with in life. <\/p>\n
\u201cViolence interrupts all of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Yade is a victim-survivor of domestic violence herself, an experience that powered her passion for supporting other women.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up in a home where there was violence and I found myself in a relationship of similar quality when I was in my early 20s,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI experienced violence in that relationship for the first time when I was pregnant and that continued when I had my daughter. When I finally left, my daughter was six months old. I had nowhere to go, I was homeless and I was terrified.<\/p>\n
\u201cI share that not because my story is special in any way, but it is the case for most women who experience domestic violence. That experience motivates me every day to make sure fewer women have that experience in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The killings seem relentless. And so full are the refuges and so scarce is the housing that Ms Yade\u2019s team find themselves saying \u201cno to more people than we\u2019re saying yes to\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe women we\u2019re working with are experiencing some of the darkest days of their life,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not sure what the future looks like. It\u2019s really hard for them to imagine having to start again with only what they can carry.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are coming into us with all kinds of different injuries. Sometimes physical injuries, sometimes psychological injuries, sometimes people are just still in a state of shock and confusion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re really not sure what\u2019s happening and the refuge is not what they imagined. We meet a lot of pregnant women who are experiencing violence for the first time. Those mums never imagined giving birth in a refuge. They never imagine seeing their kids take their first steps in a refuge. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not what anyone hopes for, but sometimes it\u2019s the only choice left.\u201d<\/p>\n
When women enter the shelter, there has usually been a drastic escalation of violence in their situation, according to Ms Yade.<\/p>\n
\u201cMostly what women describe to us is that they feel really scared. They don\u2019t feel like they can stay. They feel scared for their children and for themselves. They just feel like they\u2019ve got no other choice left but to leave,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWomen are worried that their children could be kidnapped or hurt as well. They\u2019re impossible choices to make and there\u2019s always a cost that people are trying to weigh up. It\u2019s confusing. It\u2019s overwhelming. And it just shouldn\u2019t be that hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Yade tells me that women are often surprised by the conditions of the refuge, despite staff making it as comfortable as they can with the little resources they have.<\/p>\n
\u201cI often say to people, imagine living with your whole family in one room just for a weekend. I dare you try it from Friday night until Sunday night. Give me a call on Sunday and let me know how you\u2019re going,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re in small quarters, you\u2019re experiencing some of the hardest times of your life, and you\u2019re sharing a bathroom and kitchen with 15 other families who are all stressed out and traumatised.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the last year, a surge in domestic and family violence charges coupled with stricter bail laws have seen prison and remand populations soar to record highs, resulting in overcrowding and strain on the correctional system.<\/p>\n
Additionally, Australian taxpayers are forking out over $7.3 billion annually for adult prisons, with the cost of housing a single prisoner reaching over $400 a day.<\/p>\n
Like many others, Ms Yade believes funding, support and reform is essential to ending what she says is a \u201cnational emergency\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need programs that support men to take accountability and to make a change to their behaviour,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think men should be supporting men around these issues and we\u2019ve got to try some new things. That\u2019s what we want to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s why Ms Wade is supportive of a bold state government proposal called Safer Men-Safer Families.<\/p>\n
The initiative – which needs a $6 million investment from the NSW Government – aims to keep mothers and children safely in their family home, while the male perpetrator is removed under court direction to a 24\/7 managed residential facility for assessment and intensive rehabilitation.<\/p>\n
The initiative specifically targets high-risk serial offenders – men who continually cycle through the courts and prison for breaching AVOs and committing domestic violence.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnding domestic and family violence requires all of us to be part of the solution,\u201d Ms Yade said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur focus will always be on continuing the urgent work of supporting women and children, but we recognise that men must also be part of the change.<\/p>\n
\u201cSafer Men Safer Families is about trying new approaches that encourage men to take accountability, reflect on their behaviour and change. This complements our work at WAGEC and is an important step towards safer families and a safer society.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Yade\u2019s organisation is committed to prevention work, aiming to educate the community around gender inequality and healthy relationships.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want a fair go for everyone, where violence isn\u2019t seen as a way to solve problems. We want everyone to be able to respect each other and we want that to start from the earliest years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until 1902 that women received the right to vote in Australia, with Indigenous women and men not given that same right for another 60 years.<\/p>\n
The epidemic of violence in the home is consistent with a long history that sees women as second-class citizens, undeserving of a place in society.<\/p>\n
And while men clearly do experience forms of family and domestic violence themselves, the statistics paint a picture of overwhelming violence against women.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want our community to stand up and not accept violence, to call it out wherever we see it,\u201d said Ms Yade.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I hear someone fighting in my neighbourhood, I call the police or I knock on the door. Of course, you\u2019ve got to make sure it\u2019s safe for you to do so. But if we\u2019re not feeling safe in our home next door, imagine how that woman and those children are feeling. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is something that\u2019s everyone\u2019s business. We can\u2019t just stand by and let it happen. We\u2019ve got to call it out. We\u2019ve got to call our own family members out, our own friends out, and we\u2019ve got to stand together to say \u2018violence is not acceptable\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n