Open letter – Health and Community Services Union, 4 March 2022

Killing the Department of Communities: a disaster in the making

The Premier’s decision to destroy the Department of Communities and groundlessly transform Housing Tasmania into a Statutory Authority must be opposed outright.

It may not be well known (and it’s likely the Tasmanian Government didn’t know) that in 2012 the South Australian Government combined the Department of Family Services with the Department of Education, only to separate them four years later. The amalgamation was a disaster and resulted in a Royal Commission.

The Royal Commission recommended that Government move the Office of Child Protection and the functions of Families SA out of the Department for Education and Child Development to establish a separate department that had the business of child protection as its primary focus.

The Tasmanian Child Safety Service is already under extreme pressure. History shows that amalgamating Human Services functions with Education doesn’t work. Furthermore, there is no literature or research available that supports the Premier’s decision. The community sector seems to be left scratching their heads at the move and the appearance of urgency around it.

In the absence of evidence, we can only assume that ideology and self-interest are the drivers.

Community, housing and homelessness services are not a commodity. They protect the most vulnerable Tasmanians.

If anyone believes the Premier’s move to push Housing Tasmania into a Statutory Authority is a good or reasonable thing, they are sorely mistaken. To spend millions of dollars tinkering with bureaucracy (in a way which contrives, conveniently, to outsource government responsibility and avoid scrutiny) at a time when we have a widespread housing crisis in Tasmania is gutless – and more than that, it’s negligent.

Housing Tasmania’s positioning within government structures is not the problem. The problem is the government’s utter failure in planning and funding. For those on waiting lists for housing, now having to wait an average of over 12 months to get a stable roof over their heads, repositioning does nothing to ease circumstances.

No structural change in the last decade – including outsourcing from the state to the community sector – has delivered on its promise to fix problems in the social housing community sector.

Beware a government who attempts to convince us that distancing itself from its own responsibility will somehow address the problem. It won’t, and experience proves that. It can only ensure further difficulty in addressing the fundamental problem in the future.

The move is dangerous and leaves the Tasmanian community sector on the verge of disaster. The community services sector, and those who represent it, must oppose it – or risk abrogating our responsibility to those we primarily serve: vulnerable Tasmanians.

Granted, there are no simple answers. Complex questions of homelessness and provision of social housing require complex integrated solutions. They require community solutions, policy development, strategy, and funding. Most importantly, they require government leadership and open and informed decision-making.

HACSU opposes the Premier’s move to kill the Department of Communities and calls on the Premier to immediately reverse his decision.

We will be meeting with members in coming weeks to discuss our next steps if the Premier does not commit to keep the Department of Communities intact.