
Illawarra Women’s Trauma Recovery Centre overlooked in 2022 NSW budget
Shellharbour MP Anna Watson has slammed the NSW government’s decision to overlook the “last piece in the puzzle” and not fund the Illawarra Women’s Trauma Recovery Centre.
After receiving $25 million in the federal budget in March, the final hurdle in establishing the world first centre was funding from the NSW government to operate out of a government-owned site.
“We had identified a brilliant site for this to happen [but] there was no money in the budget, which I was very disappointed and surprised [about], to be honest,” Ms Watson said.
“We have plans drawn up for the actual building to fit the site, everything is falling into place. It will be a world first. The last piece of the puzzle and the missing link to all of this rests in the hands of the New South Wales government,” Ms Watson said.
The push to establish a dedicated, purpose-built trauma centre had been building for years. In 2020, the NSW government put down $50,000 for a business case and design for the centre.
After federal funding was secured in the 2022 budget, excitement was building that the NSW budget would remove the last roadblock.
Sally Stevenson, general manager of the Illawarra Women’s Health Centre, said she was perplexed, disappointed and surprised by the snub from the NSW government.
“We’ve been working towards this for three years,” she said.
“[The NSW government] funded the business case 18 months ago, they know that we got the money from the Commonwealth government, so to not support us to bring this centre to a reality through the physical infrastructure of a building is really bewildering.”
Ms Watson said she would be joining Parliamentary Secretary for the Illawarra Peter Poulos to advocate for the centre to receive funding.
“He and I will go together and put our case again to the Minister to secure this property.”
Health initiatives that did receive a boost in the NSW budget included increased funding for mental health programs. NSW Mental Health Commissioner Catherine Lourey said the $2.9 billion mental health budget would support communities at a grassroots level.
“We have spoken to hundreds of people over the past six months to understand the needs of people across NSW with lived or living experience of suicidal distress, caring for someone through suicidal crisis and people who are bereaved by suicide as well as community representatives and professionals across the state,” Ms Lourey said.
“What we have heard is that a long-term, holistic approach is needed right across government that respects differences and provides programs from prevention and early intervention through to aftercare and postvention.
Funding will double the amount allocated to the Towards Zero Suicides initiatives and provides a six-fold increase to programs that support those who have survived a suicide attempt or experienced a suicidal crisis.
Mental health initiatives in the Illawarra include funding for mental health services in the future Shellharbour Hospital, but with the project delayed by a year, Ms Watson said that there was more the NSW government could do.
“I’ve been talking for some time about turning the existing Shellharbour hospital into a mental health facility,” she said.
“That would be a progressive, forward thinking, sensible thing to do.”
With the NSW government making a headline commitment to improving women’s participation in the workforce and investing in the public sector, with the much touted early child care scheme one measure signposted towards women, Ms Stevenson said this has overlooked critical issues facing the most vulnerable women, including access to affordable rental housing.
Ms Watson said the lack of attention to the Illawarra-Shoalhaven’s immediate health needs would inhibit the budget’s goals.
“They won’t fund the Trauma Recovery Centre: how can women participate in work when they’re not well, or when they’re going through domestic violence and they’ve got children to worry about,” she said.
“This is a government that knows the cost of everything, but the value of nothing.”