Mike Baird's resignation yesterday comes at the end of a tumultuous year for the once-popular Premier. Plunging approval ratings, ongoing controversy about lockout laws, and an embarrassing backflip on banning greyhound racing took much of the shine off his erstwhile twinkling, charming persona.
But it was his government's gutting of services for domestic violence victims in 2014 that put lives at risk, and continues to do so. SOS Women's Services, an advocacy group started when the Baird government first announced the Going Home Staying Home "reform", claim more than 80 specialist women's services closed as a result.
It's difficult to understand the real reason behind Going Home Staying Home. Perhaps it really was conceived with the best of intentions, and as happens far too often a good idea was bungled by bureaucracy. Perhaps Mike Baird, a devout Christian and long-time friend of Tony Abbott, and his strongly Christian government, genuinely believed faith-based organisations were better placed to help women fleeing domestic violence than feminist organisations with decades of experience in supporting women.
Whatever the intention, the result was devastating for the community based shelters that were once available to women fleeing for their lives. And Baird, willing to backflip on greyhound racing when it became politically necessary, consistently defended his evisceration of decades of experience and knowledge in the domestic violence sector.
The first six months of the so-called reform created chaos in women's shelters and domestic violence services across the state, two things shown to be the most effective means of helping women escape violent situations.
Police and hospitals, often the first referrals for women in danger, had no idea where to send women in immediate danger. Rural and regional shelters, already struggling to meet overwhelming demand, were closed without notice or handed over to faith-based organisations, often with disastrous results.
A Salvation Army lieutenant had to publicly apologise after he and his wife took over the Catherine Haven women's refuge in Broken Hill, and he told the ABC that women fleeing domestic violence would be turned away from the shelter if they continued to "use and abuse" its services. He also enforced a strict payment regime for women running from violent partners.
Catherine Haven used to offer a 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week refuge for women and children. Today, still run by the Salvation Army, it offers services to "Single Women, Single Men, Families, Men with Children and Women with Children", during business hours only.
While it is true that the NSW government has rebuilt some of the destruction of the Going Home Stay Home "reform" and committed to reinstating some specialist funding for domestic violence, the effects of the 2014 debacle are still felt in many shelters.
Roxanne McMurray, spokesperson for SOS Women's Services and the manager of Leichhardt Women's Community Health Centre, told the ABC in 2015 that "all but three refuges in NSW reported full capacity nearly every day of the week. One refuge on the Central Coast had turned away five domestic violence victims on the afternoon we spoke to them".
Not content with gutting refuge services, the Baird government also cut funding to legal services for abused women facing court. When the Women's Family Law Support Service, which supports about 100 women facing violent ex-partners in the family court each month, was about to close, Baird's ministers joined up with the Turnbull government to squabble over responsibility for funding this vital service, rather than respond to the crisis.
Legal services for women in NSW are vital. More than 24,000 final Apprehended Domestic Violence Orders were issued between July 2013 and June 2014, and 20 per cent of them were breached, 34 per cent of those within one month of them being issued.
A man who was often described as a conviction politician, he was either lacking in conviction on women's safety, or the description was a misnomer.
That's nearly 5000 women in NSW, in one year alone, where proven abusive ex-partners are still stalking, harassing or abusing them, despite police and court intervention. By 2015, that number had increased to more than 27,000 final ADV orders.
Baird may have presented a charming persona, he certainly talked a good shtick about taking action on domestic violence. But heartfelt Facebook posts don't stack up when you're the Premier of the most populous state in Australia and can't commit to funding the basic services to assist abused women and their children.
A man who was often described as a conviction politician, he was either lacking in conviction on women's safety, or the description was a misnomer. Charm, as anyone in the domestic violence sector will tell you, is not something to be trusted.
Australians are well able to understand complexities. We can offer full and genuine sympathy for Baird's family, while still decrying the damage his government did to so many other families in its ill-conceived destruction of women's services.
The woman currently touted as Baird's most likely replacement, Gladys Berejiklian, was appointed as his treasurer in April 2015. And she appeared to be giving her support to the efforts made in recent years to undo the damage of Going Home Staying Home.
With the Andrews government in Victoria leading the way on funding and state-wide action on domestic violence, it will be very interesting to see whether a Berejiklian government in NSW can show some genuine leadership on caring for abused women, something sorely lacking in Baird's time.
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