Real Support Isn’t A Pilot – Time To Back Workers Behind Tasmania’s Family Violence Response

When someone experiences sexual harm, the last thing they need is to be bounced between agencies, forced to retell their story again and again, or made to navigate a maze of disconnected services.

That’s why the Arch family and sexual violence centres matter so deeply — and why it’s unthinkable that their future funding and staffing still hangs in the balance.

Launched in mid-2023 as a pilot, the Arch centres in Hobart and Launceston were a long-overdue step forward for Tasmania. They represent what should be the new gold standard in our response to sexual harm: co-located, trauma-informed, survivor-centred services.

Police, counselling, child safety and family violence support — all working together under one roof.

Since opening, Arch has supported nearly 200 victim-survivors, bringing comfort and clarity to what is often the darkest period of someone’s life. It has also drawn on the voices of those with lived experience, involving them in its design, operations and evaluation. This is what real reform looks like. Not spin. Not slogans. Substance.

But despite its promise — and the Premier’s glossy press releases touting Tasmania’s $100 million “Survivors at the Centre” plan — some Arch workers still don’t know if they’ll have jobs come July 1. And they’re not alone. Other staff across the Family and Sexual Violence Command are in the same position.

Let that sink in. Frontline staff, doing some of the hardest and most critical work in the state, are on fixed-term contracts with no clear future.

Many of them hold substantive roles in other parts of the public sector, meaning other essential services are also left in limbo, waiting to backfill or plan around these vital roles.

With 27 full-time equivalent positions across the Command, this is no small matter. The Family and Sexual Violence Command includes the Safe Families Coordination Unit, the Reportable Offender and Child Exploitation Targeting Unit, the Family and Sex Crime Divisions across the North, West and South, and the Arch multidisciplinary centres that support victim-survivors of sexual harm.

Together, these services form Tasmania’s first line of defence against sexual violence and family abuse — a coordinated system working to protect lives, prevent harm and pursue justice.

And it works. In fact, this kind of multidisciplinary, trauma-informed approach is working across the country. Victoria and New South Wales have both committed to embedding co-located, survivor-centred models into their justice and health systems. These centres are proven to increase reporting, improve victim outcomes and reduce system trauma.

Tasmania is not leading the nation — it’s catching up.

But the early results from Arch are strong, and the commitment of the staff behind the model has been nothing short of extraordinary.

The Reportable Offender and Child Exploitation Targeting Unit is on the frontline of some of the most confronting work in the state — tracking dangerous registered sex offenders, targeting online predators and investigating the possession and distribution of child abuse material. Cutting or destabilising this work is not just reckless — it puts children at risk.

It’s a damning reflection of how we treat the people doing this work in our community. The work that doesn’t make headlines unless it fails. The work that changes lives- quietly, professionally, persistently.

The Tasmanian Government must guarantee funding for Arch and the other units within the Command going forward. That means secure jobs, and an enduring commitment to victim-survivors. We need them to value the people who hold these services together, who have worked to make the Family and Sexual Violence Command a success.

The prospect of taking another fixed-term contract, or facing a restructure with no detail, gives workers little comfort. They need certainty, and so does the community.

Tasmania deserves a coordinated, stable, and properly funded response to family and sexual violence. That begins with valuing and securing the workers who make it possible.

Leaving this decision down to the wire isn’t just poor planning, it’s a reckless gamble with frontline services. If these roles aren’t worth securing, the Government needs to explain what is.

Jess Greene is the Lead Organiser at the Community and Public Sector Union and Deputy Mayor of West Tamar Council.

Tasmanian Times (TT) is a community-based news and current affairs service covering the island state of Tasmania. It exists to provide a diverse view of Tasmanian issues. TT creates and supports independent media content utilising the best of modern technologies and tried-and-true practices of public-interest journalism.

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