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In the months before she was stabbed to death by her former partner, a terrified Molly Ticehurst asked for help. Repeatedly. The childcare worker from the regional NSW town of Forbes was so convinced her ex was about to kill her that she told a friend: “If I am dead, he 100 per cent did it.”
As is now well established, Ticehurst went to the police about Daniel Billings’ violent and controlling behaviour in the weeks before her murder. Officers acted on her plea, bringing Billings before a court on April 6, 2024, only for him to then be granted bail.
What is not as widely known is that between April 6 and her death just before midnight on April 21, Ticehurst was promised help from a state government program called Staying Home Leaving Violence, which is designed to make it easier for domestic violence victims to remain safely in their homes. Ticehurst was promised lights, cameras and window security screens would be added to her Young Street home via Housing Plus, a third-party tenancy and property management provider contracted by the government. The upgrades never happened before Billings broke through Ticehurst’s bedroom window and stabbed her 15 times.
It is this sort of outsourcing that the Public Service Association will on Tuesday argue must be reversed. PSA general secretary Stewart Little told the Herald that the state’s family violence services should be delivered as a core government function alongside policing, housing, health and child protection, rather than as a job picked up by well-intentioned charities, not-for-profits and community support services.
“Women are still being killed in their own homes. That is the most basic test of whether a system works, and right now the system is failing,” Little said. “We’ve just got to try something different.”
It is difficult to know whether the security measures would have saved Ticehurst – Billings was in many ways careening towards his April 21 attack for months. But the security screens might have given her a chance to dial Triple Zero while her former partner attempted to break in. The NSW Cabinet Office investigated the failure after it was revealed by The Guardian in 2024, but the results remain under wraps. One source close to the incident told the Herald that “arses were kicked”, and another said a report on the failure was submitted to the cabinet.
Housing Plus remains a government contractor, and the Staying Home Leaving Violence scheme was given another $48 million to expand to other providers in other parts of the state.
The PSA points to the Housing Plus failure as just one example of the state’s broken domestic violence system. “When safety is outsourced, accountability is outsourced,” Little said. “A domestic violence response should never depend on whether a contractor turns up.”
The PSA, which represents tens of thousands of government workers in NSW, argues that despite record spending, women are still being let down because services are “fragmented, inconsistent and too often outsourced”. It recognises the problem is not only funding levels, but also how services are structured and delivered.
The call to bring some services back under direct state control strikes at the heart of the challenge surrounding the domestic violence sector: that despite the hard work and experience of many good staff, support for women and children 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.
The government does not know exactly how many people work in the sector, but estimates about 3300 are directly involved in providing specialist domestic and family violence support. Nearly 90 per cent are women.
There are about 38,000 recorded incidents of domestic and family violence-related assaults in NSW each year.
The PSA nominated Western Sydney Nepean Blue Mountains Domestic Violence Service – one of the few run by the state government – as an example of the “one-stop” centres it wants replicated across NSW to bring together police, child protection, housing and health workers. NSW Treasury secretary Michael Coutts-Trotter lauded the service as the “gold standard” during his time as secretary of the Department of Communities and Justice.
“Governments have put up the ‘all care and no responsibility’ sign, and outsourced what should be critical frontline public sector services like getting in there and providing interventions to women and children who need support from their government,” Little said. He also dismissed any scepticism that the union’s push to bring some services back under state control could be partly motivated by a potential membership increase as “rubbish”.
The PSA also wants dedicated family violence courts – similar to specialist drug courts operating in NSW – rolled out across the state, and for alleged offenders on remand to undergo more behavioural programs.
A three-year trial of dedicated domestic violence courts at two city and three regional courts ended on Friday. Dedicated courts won’t be created as a result. However, some of the lessons from the trial have been incorporated into local court guidelines.
Housing Plus, the service assigned to install Ticehurst’s security measures, declined to comment.
If you or anyone you know needs help, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 (and see lifeline.org.au), national domestic, family and sexual violence counselling, information and support service 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) or Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800.
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Bevan Shields is a senior writer, and former editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.From our partners
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