FUND WOMEN'S HEALTH IN NSW

Let the NSW State Government know that you support the call for adequate funding of every Women's Health Centre in the 2022-2023 NSW State Budget.

NSW Women's Health Centres are on the brink.
Sign our petition, email your local MP and keep scrolling to read more about our advocacy. 

An increase of funding 30 years in the making.

For Women’s Health Centres to deliver vital services, we need a sustainable, properly funded workforce. Funding levels have changed little over 30 years and have not kept pace with CPI. Services are struggling to keep up with growing demand from rapidly increasing community needs. 

A picture paints a thousand words... 

Funding
Received 

What it would look like if funding kept up with CPI

1986

2022

$0.4m

$1m

Read the full pre-budget submission made to the NSW State Government from Women's Health NSW, "Investing in Women's Health" to get more facts about why Women's Health Centres are in urgent need of increased funding.​

Write to your local member of Parliament

You can write your own letter or use the template we have made as a guide!

Make sure to edit the red sections with your details to tailor your letter. 

Let your local MP know that their constituents expect action on investing in Women's Health Centres across NSW by writing to them on the issue.

Check out these tips on writing to your MP by Oxfam Australia

Follow our Socials

The role of Women's Health Centres in NSW

Women’s Health NSW is the peak body for 21 non-government community-based women’s health centres in New South Wales.

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Our collective mission is to ensure women’s health care is delivered in a gender appropriate, affordable and accessible way designed to meet the health needs of women, trans and gender-non forming people and children.

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Women's Health NSW acknowledges that many factors - social, cultural, environmental, economic and biological - influence the health status of women and TGNC people, their need for health services and their ability to access appropriate, affordable and culturally sensitive services.

Women's Health Centres provides a broad range of services, including:

The History of Women's Health Centres in NSW

In 1973 around the time of International Women’s Day, a forum was held that covered significant issues for women. One of the recommendations from the forum was the need to address the lack of appropriate services for women in the mainstream health system.
 

In 1974 the federal government granted funds and on International Women’s Day that year in Leichhardt (NSW), and the first women’s health centre in Australia was opened. 

Liverpool and Newcastle centres were opened in 1975, in fact new centres were emerging throughout the state. In 1978 centres were running in Wagga Wagga, Bankstown and Gosford. Each centre delivered services according to their community and were run by volunteers. By 1981 the Women’s Health and Information Resource and Crisis Centres Association or WHIRCCA was formed with the aim to create networks and support as well as advocate for other communities trying to establish Women’s Health Centres.

By 1982 the funding was handed to the NSW State Government. By 1986, through the shared work of the association and women in the communities the opening of centres in Blacktown, Penrith and Campbelltown as well as others in rural areas such as Lismore, Bathurst, Illawarra and Katoomba was made possible. WHIRCCA became known as to Women’s Health NSW in 1995. 

Women’s Health NSW now represents 21 services throughout NSW; Albury, Bankstown, Blacktown, Blue Mountains, Central Coast (Gosford), Central West (Bathurst), Coffs Harbour, Cumberland, Fairfield, Hunter, Illawarra, Leichhardt, Lismore, Liverpool, Penrith, Shoalhaven, Wagga, WILMA (Campbelltown), Full Stop Australia, Sydney Women’s Counselling Campsie and WAMINDA (South Coast Women’s Health & Welfare Aboriginal Co-op).

Women’s Health NSW acknowledges the Gadigal and Wangal people of the Eora Nation as the traditional custodians of the land on which we live and work today. We pay respect to their elders past, present and emerging.