30th May 2024
Victorian Legislative Council, Melbourne
Rachel PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan): My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Prevention of Family Violence and relates to gendered violence staff. These staff do incredibly important work on the front lines of our domestic and family violence crisis in our state. It is without question that these roles must be well staffed and well paid. That said, last year the federal government announced it would provide $169 million over four years to fund 500 new frontline workers to assist those with experienced family, domestic or sexual violence. This commitment recognises that violence against women is a national crisis and must be addressed as a matter of urgency. In this arrangement, the states and territories are responsible for ensuring workers are hired. The national target is 352 positions filled by 30 June. There are concerns that this target will not be met. As of the start of this month only 30 of these positions have been filled. The Victorian government has refused to disclose how many staff it has employed so far and how many it is committed to hiring by 30 June. If other, more transparent, jurisdictions are anything to go by, the target of 352 positions filled by 30 June will not be met.
Some believe that the problems with staffing reflect deeper issues. Notably, these employees are salaried with no benefits. Superannuation, holiday leave, computers and cars are not provided within the funding package. This puts pressure on already underfunded services to provide extra funding for these staff. Beyond that, the salaries themselves are uncompetitive. So the action I seek is that the minister discloses how many frontline workers the Victorian government has employed so far and what its 30 June target is.
Written Answer, Provided 18th of June:
Vicki Ward MP, Minister for Prevention of Family Violence
Thank you for your query regarding the 500 new frontline workers for specialist family violence and sexual assault support services across Australia. The Victorian Government welcomes funding under the National Partnership on Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence to support the recruitment of its allocation of 101 workers across two tranches. This investment will provide a valued boost to service delivery for both the specialist family violence and sexual assault sectors and improve outcomes for victim survivors.
Information on the implementation of the 500 workers is available on the Department of Social Services website: 500 workers – monthly update | Department of Social Services, Australian Government (dss.gov.au).
Recruitment in Victoria is progressing as agreed with the Commonwealth government. As of 31 May 2024, 11 workers had commenced service delivery, 4 offers have been accepted and 20 roles are in recruitment. This places Victoria’s progress in good standing amongst the other States.
Funding for the positions was developed in alignment with the Social and Community Services Award, an industry standard for specialist family violence sexual assault support services and includes on-costs and non-wage costs.
These positions are in addition to the 2,000 new roles that the Victorian Government has added to the specialist family violence sector since 2016.We will continue to work with the specialist family violence and sexual assault sector to continue to grow the workforce and to roll out Victoria’s allocation of the 500 workers.
