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Speaker 1: Serious concerns are being raised in the domestic violence sector.

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Speaker 1: Now we know that Dawn House which provides a safe

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Speaker 1: haven to women and children, so that they're turning away

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Speaker 1: around two hundred victims a month, and just a month

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Speaker 1: ago in budget estimates, it was revealed that the Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory government acted sixty five million dollars promised years ago

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Speaker 1: to refurbish the shelter. Now joining us on the line

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Speaker 1: is the Chief Executive, Anna Hison. Good morning to you, Anna.

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Speaker 1: Hopefully we've got her there. Let's try that again. We're

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Speaker 1: just having some issues here with this phone line. I

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Speaker 1: will just try one more time. Good morning to.

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Speaker 2: You, Anna, Good morning Katie. Can you hear me? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: I can. Sorry about that. A few tech issues in

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Speaker 1: here could be my fault. Now, Anna, obviously this is

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Speaker 1: a real concern. Can you give us some context around

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Speaker 1: those numbers. Is the shelter continuously at full capacity?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly right. So we turn away between one

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Speaker 2: hundred and fifty to two hundred women that reach out

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Speaker 2: for support at Dawn House every single month. Our shelter,

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Speaker 2: our crisis shelter spate run runs constantly at about one

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Speaker 2: hundred and ten percent capacity, so we're always full, and

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Speaker 2: the threshold for the woman that we are able to

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Speaker 2: support as getting higher and higher. The risk is getting

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Speaker 2: higher and higher, and we're just not seeing an end

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Speaker 2: in sight at the moment. And like you said before,

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Speaker 2: we had so it was six point five million, not

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Speaker 2: sixty five million. Six point five million dollars dedicated to

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Speaker 2: infrastructure to rebuild our facility which was falling down around us,

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Speaker 2: and it was also going to increase our bed capacity,

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Speaker 2: so going from six crisis shelters to ten, and during

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Speaker 2: estimates that that money was pulled, we were not aware

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Speaker 2: of the changes and had sort of made all of

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Speaker 2: our plans according to that, hoping that would sell some

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Speaker 2: of these gaps for these women that we too the way,

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Speaker 2: and it just feels that we've gone back, we're not

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Speaker 2: making any steps forward and the need of not getting

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Speaker 2: any lead.

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Speaker 1: So six point five million, not the sixty five I

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Speaker 1: do apologize six point five million. And really the way

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Speaker 1: that you found out that that was no longer going

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Speaker 1: to be going ahead was through watching the estimates process. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Correct, we found out at the same time as everybody else,

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Speaker 2: and has been promised to us three to four years

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Speaker 2: prior through the previous government, and we've been working very

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Speaker 2: actively with Department of Infrastructure and Department of Children and

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Speaker 2: Families planning for this design and purpose belt and we

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Speaker 2: were ready to go. So it was such a huge

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Speaker 2: blow to us to find out that we've sort of

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Speaker 2: gone back for five years and we're right back to

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Speaker 2: consoct stage.

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Speaker 1: Ana, can you talk me through I mean, you've said

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Speaker 1: that you're operating at one hundred and ten percent capacity,

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Speaker 1: you know on any given day, when we then look

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Speaker 1: at the fact that there's two hundred women that could

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Speaker 1: be turned away in any given months, can you just

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Speaker 1: can you give us some insight into, you know, into

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Speaker 1: how or or what the situation is. Are we talking

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Speaker 1: about women that you know that they call you or

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Speaker 1: that they turn up and they're saying, you know, we

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Speaker 1: are trying to flee a domestic violence situation and you're

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Speaker 1: not able to take them in.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, that is what's happening. Some are identifying the

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Speaker 2: need for supports early on, so maybe there's been one

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Speaker 2: violent incident with a partner and they really want some support,

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Speaker 2: and then some are actively needing to flee. We've got

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Speaker 2: a woman from within the Greater Darwin area, but also

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Speaker 2: from all of the nt wanting to flee to Dawn House.

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Speaker 2: And we have to assess based on need and the threshold.

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Speaker 2: Like I said before, that we can taken just purely

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Speaker 2: due to our capacity. Issues are the highest of highest.

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Speaker 2: So the women that do end up in our shelter

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Speaker 2: at immediate risk of death. So we are having to

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Speaker 2: bring in those women who are deemed as the most

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Speaker 2: at risk. But in saying that, the woman that we

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Speaker 2: do turn away are absolutely at risk as well. And

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Speaker 2: then we are stuck in this loophole of trying to

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Speaker 2: call all the other shelters. They're in the exact same

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Speaker 2: situation as us. It's not just us that are in

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Speaker 2: this situation, so we're having to rely on other places

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Speaker 2: that we can put them to keep them safe, and

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Speaker 2: those aren't always available. It's just this constant loophole that

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Speaker 2: my frontline staff are having to do every single day.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, is there a risk assessment tool that helps you

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Speaker 1: to decide who's in greater need? Like that's a really

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Speaker 1: tough situation for you, you and your staff to be in.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a common risk assessment tool known as the

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Speaker 2: crat that frontline staff but also police use. And what

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Speaker 2: that does is it gives everybody a score essentially, So

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Speaker 2: anything above a twenty eight is deemed as very serious risk.

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Speaker 2: They are doing a serious risk and need active specialist

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Speaker 2: support from somewhere like Dawn House. Now we're aware seeing

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Speaker 2: scores as high as in the sixties and seventies, which

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Speaker 2: is just so high risk. That means that they are

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Speaker 2: an immediate risk of very very serious harm or death.

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Speaker 2: And these are the women that we're having too to

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Speaker 2: bring in. So we're turning away people that have got

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Speaker 2: scores of forties and fifties when we know that they

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Speaker 2: are at theorious risk. Yeah, it's really alarming.

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Speaker 1: So what you know, do we then see women and

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Speaker 1: children going back to those violent situations? What is happening? Wesh?

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Speaker 2: Sometimes sometimes there's no other option and they've got nowhere

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Speaker 2: to sleep, so they are staying in the situations longer

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Speaker 2: than they should be. Or women sometimes will put themselves

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Speaker 2: into homelessness because it's safer, or they are going and

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Speaker 2: staying with other friends. It's just this awful cycle. When

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Speaker 2: when a woman reaches out for the first time and

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Speaker 2: says I need help, that's when we need to jump.

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Speaker 2: Not in six months time when it got to the

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Speaker 2: point where they are an immediate risk. You know, we

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Speaker 2: should be able to support them the first time they

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Speaker 2: call us. And just due to capacity as across the sector,

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Speaker 2: the women that are getting sort of leaft behind, I mean.

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Speaker 1: Where too from here? Anna, because it sounds like you

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Speaker 1: guys are in a situation where it is at crisis point.

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Speaker 1: You know, if you're turning away women that are at

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Speaker 1: really serious risk of you know, well they're in those

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Speaker 1: domestic violence situations and then they've got nowhere to go.

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Speaker 1: But you're also now in a situation where the six

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Speaker 1: point five million that you thought you were going to

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Speaker 1: be receiving to obviously expand those services to some degree

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Speaker 1: doesn't seem as though it's going to happen. We're too

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Speaker 1: from here?

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Speaker 2: Where's here? From here? I mean our Minister sat say

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Speaker 2: is that there's a whole new strategic plan and this

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Speaker 2: is priority. I really hope that that's the case. We

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Speaker 2: yet to have these sit downs with the Department to

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Speaker 2: push for what crisis that we're in. We can't keep consulting,

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Speaker 2: we can't keep coming up with new strategies. We've done it,

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Speaker 2: We've done it. It feels like every new government, we go

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Speaker 2: back and start all over again and nothing's changing. It

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Speaker 2: is good to hear that the Minister has committed to

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Speaker 2: making change in the space, but it needs to happen now.

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Speaker 2: I can't wait another six months. I can't turn away

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Speaker 2: another thousand women before the end of the year. It's

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Speaker 2: just something has to happen right now. The fact that

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Speaker 2: we've come together, we've got a lot of solutions and

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Speaker 2: a lot of possible things that we can try because

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Speaker 2: something needs to change. But we just are going back

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Speaker 2: to that consult stage and nothing's happening, and we can't

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Speaker 2: keep waiting.

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Speaker 1: Well, it sounds like a really difficult situation. I will,

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Speaker 1: I mean we often, we often speak to the Chief Minister,

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Speaker 1: so we'll certainly ask her some questions about this, and

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Speaker 1: I might even see whether we're able to have a

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Speaker 1: discussion with the Minister for the Prevention of Domestic violence.

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Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time this morning. Thank you for

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Speaker 1: making us aware of the situation.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you so much for having me Katie.

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Speaker 1: Thank you