Wednesday, 21 May 2025
Government House, Sydney
Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC Governor of New South Wales

Bujari Gamarruwa

Diyn Babana, Gamarada Gadigal Ngura

In greeting you in the language of the Gadigal, Traditional Owners of these lands and waterways, I pay my respects to their Elders past, present, and emerging. I extend that respect to the Elders of all places from which you have travelled today.

Tonight is, in many senses, a story about the worst behaviour in our community and some of the best.

The worst is, of course, the scourge of family and domestic violence. 

According to the ABS Personal Safety Survey (PSS) conducted in 2021-2022, 1-in-4 Australian women (2.3 million) had experienced violence by an intimate partner since the age of 15; the same number had been emotionally abused by a current or previous partner; and 1 in 6 (1.6 million) had experienced economic abuse.^[1]

Domestic and family violence is a leading contributor to death, illness, and disability for women aged 18 to 44 in Australia.^[2]

In NSW, in the five years up to December last year, 45 women were murdered by an intimate partner.^[3]

Violence is also the main reason women and children flee their homes.^[4]

Too often—because of the lack of safe shelter options, substandard or insecure housing—this leads to homelessness—whether that be living in cars or on the streets.^[5]

Last year, 39% of all clients assisted by specialist homelessness services had experienced family and domestic violence; of these, 9-in-10 were women or children^[6].

Too often—faced with this prospect—women are forced to remain in, or return to, violent relationships.^[7]

These are realities that should not have to be faced by anyone.

There is another statistic I wish to mention, and domestic violence seems to attract so many statistics (few ever heartening). According to the ANROWS 2021 National Community Attitudes Towards Violence Against Women (NCAS) Survey, although 9-in-10 Australians agreed that violence against women was a problem, less than half thought it a problem in the suburb or town where they lived.^[8]

The founders of Mary’s House knew that that was an urban myth, which if not addressed at the local level, could mean that there were families literally and figuratively next door, living in dangerous circumstances. 

As your former chair, Liz Mackinlay, who is with us tonight, said in 2016:

Domestic violence doesn’t respect postcodes, it isn’t associated with any particular socio-economic status, cultural group or demographic. […] It is happening on the lower north shore.^[9]

The story of Mary’s House is part of the story of domestic violence in those lower north shore postcodes—the good side of the story. It began ten years ago, when the parish manager of Our Lady of the Way in North Sydney brought together a group of local people to help establish, using a soon-to-be vacant church property, a crisis accommodation service for women and their children escaping domestic violence.^[10]

This was the seed from which Mary’s House sprang; but the story of Mary’s House is more than just finding and outfitting a building. Certainly, the intention was a local safe haven for women and children; but the intention went beyond that—and this is important.

It was to activate the local community—its energy, its resources, its expertise, and passion—not only to support the service, but also to use that connection to amplify the emphatic message that violence against women had no place, and never would, in their community.^[11]

With this focus in and on the local community, Mary’s House was an inspired response to that urban myth I mentioned; that, in general, people don’t think there is domestic violence in their own locality.

In November 2016[12], Mary’s House Refuge opened its doors. In the years since, over 15,000 safe nights’ sleep have been provided for women and their children fleeing violence.[13]

In addition, in 2020, services were expanded with the opening of Daisy House, a community programs centre providing outreach therapeutic services and support, financial and legal aid, and more, to all women in need.^[14]

As a community-based, and fully community-funded enterprise, none of this would have been possible, or could continue to be possible, without the generosity and collaborative dedication of everyone in this room.

Your donations of time, services, and capital to support and grow Mary’s House are the reason that there are women and their families who can go to bed tonight knowing they are safe.

For that, for your ongoing efforts and generosity, in spirit and kind, for providing hope, for helping improve—and save—the lives of women and children impacted by family and domestic violence, I can only say:

Thank you

[1] ‘Intimate Partner Violence’, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) website, available here. The Personal Safety Survey 2021-2022 is available on the Australian Bureau of Statistic website here

[2] National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032, op. cit., pp.15, 39; ‘The Effects of Domestic and Family Violence’, NSW Government Communities and Justice website, available here. See also: Samara McPhedran, ‘FactCheck: is Domestic Violence the Leading Preventable Cause of Death and Illness for Women Aged 18 to 44’, The Conversation online, 16 April 2018, available here

[3] NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, ‘Domestic Violence Related Murder in NSW: Trends to December 2024’, March 2025, here

[4] ‘Housing’, Australian Government Institute of Health and Welfare website, available here

[5] Kathleen Flanagan, Hazel Blunden, kylie valentine, and Jane Henriette, Housing Outcomes after Domestic and Family Violence, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), 2019, p.4, available here

[6] ‘Housing’, Australian Government Institute of Health and Welfare website, available here

[7] Flanagan et al., Housing Outcomes after Domestic and Family Violence, op. cit., p.4

[8] Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS), Attitudes Matter: The 2021 National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey (NCAS), Findings for Australia, p.78, available here; ‘Community Understanding of FDSV’, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare website, available here.

[9] Daisy Dumas, ‘Women's Shelter to Cater for Demand in Just One of Sydney’s Wealthy Suburbs Lacking Vital Services’, Sydney Morning Herald online, 26 February 2016, available here

[10] Liz Mackinlay, ‘Mary’s House: An Integrated Community and Church Crisis Accommodation Service’, St Mark’s Review, no 243, March 2018, p.90, available here

[11] ibid

[12] Mackinlay, ‘Mary’s House’, op. cit., p.94.

[13] ‘Overview’, Mary’s House Services website, available here

[14] ibid.