Today during Question Time, Abigail pressed the NSW Treasurer on when the Minns Government will commit to the core funding increases desperately needed by domestic and family violence frontline services, funding that will save lives.
Abigail sad:
My question is directed to the Treasurer. For every year over the last five years, the number one ask of the domestic violence sector in New South Wales has been for an uplift in core baseline funding for frontline services. Experts have continuously pointed to these frontline services as being the primary mechanism for keeping women and children safe and have pointed to a lack of funding as being a core reason for the failure of governments to prevent domestic violence incidents and homicides. Given that in 2025 New South Wales once again recorded the highest rates of domestic violence murders in Australia, will the Minns Government finally provide the 50 per cent increase in core baseline funding that the sector has been calling for?
The Hon. DANIEL MOOKHEY (Treasurer): I thank the member for her question and her ongoing advocacy on this issue. The member has been making this argument in question times and budget estimates hearings in both this term of Parliament and the previous term. Obviously the budget process is about to intensify. When we hand down the budget, we can reveal the full nature of our decisions. But I am aware of the calls and the extensive campaigns... I must be honest: A 50 per cent baseline increase, particularly, as the sector is asking for, over one year, is not an easy task to meet, but we will, of course, engage in good faith in those discussions.
... Every year since we were elected, we have automatically and immediately funded minimum wage increases for the sector, rather than every year the sector having to mobilise a massive effort to simply get the Government to amend the contract some months after the minimum wage decision has come down. I am really pleased that we have funded it every year, even when we were criticised—particularly last year—for using the State's contingency powers to do so...
Ms ABIGAIL BOYD: I thank the Treasurer for his considered response. It is unfortunate that we are continuously in this position of having to keep making this call for what is an evidence-based part of the solution to turn around domestic and family violence in New South Wales. Yes, it is money, and it needs to come from somewhere, but we are talking about $170 million for a 50 per cent uplift. This is not a massive amount of money for this Government. As we know, budgets are about choices. Allowing a billion dollars to go uncollected from pokies while not giving out $170 million to actually save people's lives is a choice this Government makes. It is great that the minimum wage was funded, but we also need to then fund the additional workers comp that goes on top of that additional wage and everything else.
Abigail later spoke during a take note debate on the Treasurer's response:
I reflect on the answer given by the Treasurer to my question about funding for domestic and family violence frontline services. As the Treasurer noted, I have been calling for funding over a couple of different governments now. But the people who are on the front line in our domestic and family violence services—whether they be in shelters or in other wraparound supports—have been demanding this for a much longer time than I have been in this place. The evidence is clear. It is only by properly funding frontline services and evidence‑based programs that we will begin to see a turnaround in the rates of domestic violence and domestic homicides in this State. It is disappointing. Yes, there has been some change. Under this Government some small amounts of funding have been variously provided, but not to what the domestic and family violence sector has been calling for.
That is particularly cruel. People work on the front line in this sector because they care. When we speak to services, particularly in the regions, we hear about people who are working to save the lives of predominantly women and children in far flung, remote areas that they have responsibility for. However, the lack of funding means that they cannot take a day off. If a client is murdered or some other horrific thing happens, the people providing services are unable to take a day of respite. They simply do not have the funding to bring someone else in to replace them for a day. That puts stress on workers, especially when waiting lists are up to three months long. It is really incredibly cruel to continue to deny them what is quite a small amount of funding in the grand scheme of things for the Government.
We have this year's budget coming up. I really hope this is the year that we finally see the Government do what the evidence is telling it that it needs to do to turn around this domestic and family violence crisis. Six women have already been murdered in Australia this year. Two of those were domestic and family violence murders in New South Wales. That is too many, and we need to turn this around.
Read the transcripts in Hansard here and here.
4 February 2026