Tasmanian Budget 2022-23

Jacquie Petrusma MP, Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence

Eliminating family and sexual violence is a priority for the Tasmanian Liberal Government. Since the launch of our first nation-leading Action Plan in 2015, this Government has continued to build upon its commitment, investment and scope in responding to family and sexual violence in Tasmania.

Since 2015, we have invested more than $300 million into family and sexual violence responses, including $63 million for specific measures under our first and second Action Plans and the $19 million in direct funding and $59 million in indirect funding we spend to address family and sexual violence every year.

Our third Family and Sexual Violence Action Plan is currently being developed in consultation with the Government’s Family and Sexual Violence Consultative Group, key stakeholders, and people with lived experience, and includes:

The Hearing Lived Experience Survey;
Establishing a Victim-Survivor Advisory Council;
Targeted workshops with a focus on diverse lived experience including children and young people, people with disability, CALD communities, rural and regional communities, LGBTIQ+ and older Tasmanians;
Partnering with Tasmanian Aboriginal Community organisations; and
Public written submissions.

In 2022-23, $12.5 million has been allocated for the first year of the five-year Action Plan. This represents a 40 per cent increase on the annual investment under our current Action Plan.

One of the key priority actions in the new Action Plan will be a commitment of increased recurrent core funding for Tasmania’s nine specialist family and sexual violence services with five-year contracts, so as to provide greater certainty, and increased operational capacity to respond to demand over the longer term.

We want to strengthen service delivery to ensure that Tasmanians who experience family and sexual violence have access to specialist support services that meet their needs and circumstances.

The Plan will include new actions to further refine our efforts towards preventing and responding to family and sexual violence, whilst putting the voices of victim-survivors at the centre of our approach.

To further assist victim-survivors of both sexual and family violence, the 2022-23 Budget will also fund $15.1 million over two years to pilot new Multidisciplinary Centres in the north and south of the State.

These new Centres will provide a best-practice sexual and family violence response that puts victim-survivors at the centre, through providing immediate support and safety services to victim-survivors, including counselling and specialist police investigators.

These new Centres will also expand the capabilities and resourcing of the Safe Families Coordination Unit to include sexual violence more broadly, thereby creating a multi-agency response and intelligence hub with more effective working relationships between agencies.

Other initiatives across Government include an additional $4.9 million for the Safe at Home Family Violence Service System; $950,000 for Family Violence Rapid Rehousing, $277,000 for the Hobart Women’s Shelter Emergency Response and $3.7 million to deliver increased forensic science capability that will provide increased storage of evidence, including sexual evidence kits. This means that victim-survivors can report when they feel ready, knowing that evidence will be kept indefinitely.

This is a Government with integrity and heart, one that is courageous, accountable and delivers on its commitments.

The Tasmanian Budget 2022-23 is delivering for all Tasmanians.

THIRD FAMILY AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE ACTION PLAN