A committed campaigner has called for a refuge for men fleeing domestic violence in the Orana region as new funding for the issue was announced by the NSW government.
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Dubbo-based Lynn Field said there was currently nowhere for men in the local area to go if they wanted to remove their children from violent partners.
The CEO manager of Nguumambiny Indigenous Corporation, she reported seeing a steep rise in the number of male victims of the offence, with 45 men from the community coming to her for help so far this year.
Ms Field identified a refuge as needed when asked how she would like to see the new funding used.
The NSW Budget provided $13 million over four years to pilot new responses for male victims.
The sum was part of a more than $300 million investment over four years by the NSW government to provide specialist domestic violence initiatives.
Ms Field said the funding was encouraging.
“The point is they (male victims) have been forgotten for so long,” she said.
Ms Field made the case for a refuge, located at Dubbo or somewhere in the Orana region.
“With the ice epidemic, more women are taking the drug, and who are they taking it out on,” she said.
Nguumambiny Indigenous Corporation was the only organisation west of the Blue Mountains dealing with male victims of domestic violence, Ms Field reported.
When it started 2.5 years ago, they reached out to what was “an area that was greatly ignored” and the numbers had steadily grown.
In Nguumambiny’s first year, there were 15 male victims seek support from it, Ms Field said.
In the next year, there were 18.
In the first six months of this year, there had been 45 men from the community come to Ms Field for help.
“There is nowhere for these guys to go to, nowhere for them to go to talk,” Ms Field said.
“Most of my male clients are middle-aged men who were brought up not to hit women, and they don’t.
“As a result, they get hit by women.”
Ms Field called for an overhaul of the system, which she said was not aware of male victims.
She cited an earlier campaign educating the community that one in three deaths from domestic violence were male.
“We should be helping all victims, regardless of sex, age, gender or sexual orientation,” she said.