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When it comes to protecting women and families who fear violence, providing shelters for those who flee it and advocating for those in its grip, NSW has long relied on not-for-profit organisations, charities and community support services. But this model has significant flaws.
It means the many players in the sector are ragged chasing after the limited funding afforded by governments. When that funding comes, it’s often short-term and insufficient, which means employment in the sector is unstable, service provision can be slow and, despite the best efforts of all, the continuity of care for victims can be patchy.
As the Herald’s Bevan Shields reports, the death of childcare worker Molly Ticehurst at the hands of her partner raises concerns about the continuing widespread outsourcing of family violence services.
When the man who later killed her was granted bail on domestic violence charges in April 2024, Ticehurst was assured help from a state government program called Staying Home Leaving Violence, which was designed to make it easier for domestic violence victims to remain safely in their homes.
She was promised lights, cameras and window security screens for her Forbes home via Housing Plus, a third-party tenancy and property management provider contracted by the government. The upgrades never happened. Billings broke through her bedroom window and stabbed her 15 times.
There is no way of knowing if the security measures could have saved her.
But it is the sort of lapse that a Public Service Association campaign believes shows outsourcing has gone too far, and family violence services should instead be delivered as a core government function alongside policing, housing, health and child protection. “When safety is outsourced, accountability is outsourced,” PSA general secretary Stewart Little said. “A domestic violence response should never depend on whether a contractor turns up.”
Of course, the union would benefit from domestic violence services being brought under direct state control as it represents public sector workers.
Nevertheless, the PSA proposal is worth consideration. Molly Ticehurst’s outsourcing experience exposes a wider problem: despite the hard work and experience of many good staff, support for women and children dealing with violence is patchy, varies wildly depending on location, and is propped up by a vast array of providers who have to compete for a limited pool of funds and spend a huge amount of time lodging repeated funding applications.
Frontline services remain critically underfunded and have not had a baseline increase for a decade. About 38,000 incidents of domestic and family violence-related assaults are recorded annually, and Domestic Violence NSW’s 2025 Stretched Beyond Demand report shows specialist domestic and family violence services are collapsing under the weight.
In response to Molly Ticehurst’s death the NSW government launched a review of the state’s bail conditions for alleged domestic violence perpetrators, and announced alleged perpetrators charged with serious domestic violence offences would wear ankle bracelets and have movements tracked around the clock if granted bail. But such reforms are not enough.
The system’s tragic failure to protect Molly Ticehurst illustrates the yawning operational gaps in the state’s protection of women and families.
Too many women and children are still living in fear. Dealing with such an entrenched problem will require carefully calibrated policies, sustained investment across many layers of government and a willingness to consider significant changes to the way domestic violence services are delivered if those changes will benefit victims.
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