Budget 2023-24: Towards an equal safety net for temporary visa holders experiencing violence

The federal government last night made a range of commitments to women’s safety.

In addition to the $1.7 billion investment in October 2022, which broadly committed to work related to violence against women, the 2023 budget measures include $589.3 million funding to support women’s safety, as outlined in the Women’s Budget Statement.

Importantly, we can see an emerging agenda for transformation, recognising the specificity of temporary migrants’ experiences of family violence, and the need for system reforms that can better-protect women.

Last night’s commitments included two key announcements:

1. Access to the family violence provision will be expanded to a range of visas that have a pathway to permanency. This replaces the previously very restricted access to this safety net in the migration system.
2. Additional funding to sustain the Temporary Visa Holders Experiencing Violence Pilot (TVP) until 2025.

These are welcome reforms.

Our research has highlighted the importance of paying careful attention to temporary visa holders experiencing family violence who are not on a pathway to permanency, and therefore are excluded from access to a range of support mechanisms (Maher & Segrave, 2018; Segrave, 2017, 2021; Vasil, 2023).

We are also members of the National Advocacy Group for Women on Temporary Visas Experiencing Family Violence, and while these reforms go some way to addressing the desired policy change outlined in the 2022 Blueprint for Reform, they don’t yet go as far as we need.

So, what else is needed to secure the safety of temporary visa holders? We highlight two critical asks.

1. Family violence provisions are only for people on a pathway to permanency

We know people come to Australia on temporary visas (for example, on a student or skilled work visa), form relationships, may have children, and that these relationships may become abusive.

We know people who are already married come to Australia (for example, on a visitor visa) while awaiting a partner visa application decision, or before an application has been made, and are in abusive relationships.

Women in these situations have no safety net. We need to urgently prioritise women’s safety by introducing a substantive temporary visa to protect victim-survivors of domestic, family and sexual violence, as detailed in the Blueprint for Reform. This would allow women to remain in the county for a number of years, to work, have access to social support, and to pursue civil, criminal and family court matters that can arise in the context of family violence.

2. Temporary visa holders experiencing violence program needs to be independently reviewed

While the program has supported many temporary visa holders, it’s a limited payment, and the promised review of the pilot program has not yet come to fruition.

We need to better-understand the implementation of the pilot, and what can be done further to support women in this context.

A key question is why there is a need for a separate emergency fund for temporary visa holders.

Currently, a payment of up to $3000 is available for temporary visa holders, while permanent residents and citizens can access a safety net of $5000.

Ideally, anyone experiencing family violence – irrespective of migration or citizenship status – should be able to access an immediate and equal emergency payment that can make a difference to their safety.

Doing this would also reduce the administrative costs of having two systems in place, creating a larger budget pool to reinvest in women’s safety.

Finally, we would like to see a more detailed reckoning with the inclusion of the trafficking and slavery agenda as part of the commitment to addressing and responding to violence against women.

Current developments are welcome and necessary; however, this remains an area of very limited review.

Recent research has indicated we need to change how we’re responding to different forms of abuse and exploitation under the Commonwealth Criminal Code, including forced marriage.

Read more: Forced marriage as family violence: Potential for change, but more needs to be done

There’s consistent reinvestment in this area, including last night’s announcement of $24.3 million to pilot an additional referral pathway for the Support for Trafficked People Program, and restructure the program to meet the needs of victim-survivors.

But the agenda needs to connect more transparently and clearly to the pursuit of women’s safety; we recommend an urgent public review of the policing and support program.

We look forward to working with a government committed to reform, and to drawing on robust evidence to advance this agenda. The commitment to women’s safety is well-evidenced in the 2023 budget. We hope to see this expand to realise the true potential of ensuring all women have access to safety from violence.