Over summer and in the lead up to the recent State Election many members were actively involved in the ASU Save Our Local Community Services campaign.
This campaign is to resist the cuts to community services funding at a state and federal level – and to fight for a better way of funding community services that doesn’t include competitive tendering or allow for-profit organisations to make money from the provision of essential community services.
A particular pattern that has been emerging in recent federal and state government reforms of SACS funding is a constant attack on services supporting women that are run by women. In NSW we had the Going Home Staying Home reforms last year that decimated women-run women’s refuges, and federally we have seen cuts to specialist family support, financial aid and legal services that support women experiencing domestic and family violence.
The Save Our Local Community Services campaign will now also be advocating for dedicated and ongoing funding for women’s services run by women for women.
These services fought for their existence and funding in the 1970s and 1980s and at the time were supported by Governments at a state and federal level after extensive campaigns.
We must ensure that those gains are not eroded by further government cuts and ideology. We will be in touch again soon about the next steps in the campaign and you can keep up to date with the campaign on our Facebook page.