MT DRUITT FAMILY VIOLENCE SERVICE

Dubbed ‘the gold standard’ by the state’s top bureaucrat, Treasury Secretary Michael Coutts-Trotter, the Mount Druitt Family Violence Service has been keeping women safe in the country’s most dangerous postcode for 20 years. 

In the last decade there were  7119 domestic violence episodes in the 2770 postcode – the most in NSW. The same postcode had the most murders in Sydney in the last 10 years.

So it’s hard to believe in the last two years there’ve been two attempts to close the service.

A service which has saved 100s of lives.

“Women often come in with the clothes on their back and a kid under each arm,” a caseworker told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2024.

Yet despite being at the centre of the DV epidemic, The Mt Druitt Family Violence Service is one of the few government-run centres in NSW, staffed by highly trained, university educated, child protection workers who regularly liaise with local police, and other services.