POLICE have referred 501 victims of domestic violence to a local court advocacy service in the past three months.
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There were 27 police referrals over last weekend alone.
The Western Women’s Domestic Violence Court Advocacy Service (WWDVCAS) covers Dubbo and other western local government areas, where rates of domestic violence are among the highest in the state.
The Orana region is home to eight of the state’s 14 worst local government areas for the crime, according to figures from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.
In the 12 months to June 2015, there were 1,258 recorded domestic violence incidents in the Orana region, and 361 in Dubbo alone.
But WWDVCAS chairwoman Tina Reynolds said that is just the tip of the iceberg.
“Those 501 are people that the police have referred to us, but there are a lot of women and children that we don’t even know about,” Ms Reynolds said.
“A lot of domestic violence goes unreported which is a concern, because the more women that don’t report it, we can’t have accurate figures.
“Government agencies are going to put the money where the large numbers are, so if we have a lot of unreported incidents here there’ll be less funding and support available. So I encourage all women to stand up and report it.”
At the weekend the federal government announced Dubbo would receive a share of $15 million to improve legal access for domestic violence victims, as part of the federal government’s campaign to end the crime.
Dubbo City mayor Mathew Dickerson welcomed the news, but said it’s sad that the money is needed.
“Any initiative where Dubbo has been chosen to receive additional benefits is obviously an excellent thing, but it’s a sad blight on our environment and on our community, nationally, that this is even a problem,” Cr Dickerson said.
“It’s sad that we need the level of support that the government has committed. It would be better if we didn’t need it but the data is there - we have a problem and it needs to be fixed.”
Cr Dickerson said he was confident the community, both in Dubbo and nationally, had already taken the first step by admitting there is a serious problem.
“One thing that I’ve always found is the Dubbo community as whole is good at putting their hand up when there is a problem,” Cr Dickerson said.
“There are some things that I don’t get, and I don’t get domestic violence. I don’t understand why people do it but obviously they do and we need to address it.”
