Ms Aitchison says -

Madam SPEAKER:

On the next sitting day I will move that this house notes that:

1. One in four women in Australia has experienced sexual assault and domestic violence.

2. 1800 RESPECT provides telephone and online counselling by specialist domestic violence and sexual assault trauma counsellors, employed by Rape and Domestic Violence Service Australia (RDVSA), regarded internationally as the world’s best service, to women, men and child survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence.

3. In August 2016 the Federal Government chose to fund a more expensive, private multinational health insurance company (MHS) to “triage” the calls, forcing victims to recount their stories in order to access counselling rather than giving adequate funding to the service to provide more services.

4. Last week MHS put the specialist counselling service out to tender.

NSW Labor condemns the privatisation of essential services for victims of rape and domestic violence.

It is incredibly disrespectful to the feminists who started this service some fifty years ago, who have run it since on the sniff of an oily rag, to try and run it at a profit, from least cost perspective.