Jacquie Petrusma,Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence
Ensuring victim-survivors of family and sexual violence receive immediate and integrated support in a safe place is a top priority for the Tasmanian Liberal Government.
This is why we will provide $15.1 million over two years to pilot Multidisciplinary Centres in the north and south of the state that offer immediate, wrap around support and safety services to adult and child victim-survivors.
Multidisciplinary Centres are a proven model in other jurisdictions both nationally and internationally, as they provide a best practice response.
They will also be the most significant change to how we respond to family and sexual violence since we came to government in 2014.
This is a landmark outcome for victim-survivors who will be at the centre of this new support model.
Multidisciplinary centres are not like reporting to a police station, and these new facilities will provide a warm and welcoming environment where victim-survivors especially in crisis, can access appropriate family or sexual violence counselling services and other related supports immediately.
Then, when they are ready, victim-survivors can also formally report to a specialist police investigator on site.
Importantly, these new Centres will recognise the intersection between sexual and family violence, by expanding the capabilities and resourcing of the Safe Families Coordination Unit to include sexual violence more broadly, including child sexual violence, thereby creating a multi-agency response and intelligence hub.
This will enable more effective working relationships between agencies, for both sexual and family violence.
These Centres are about providing a best-practice sexual and family violence response that puts victim-survivors at the heart, empowering and supporting victim-survivors to come forward and seek the support they need in a safe place.
Funding will be included in this year’s Budget, with planning work on this important initiative already commenced, and is being developed in conjunction with our Government’s third Family and Sexual Violence Action Plan.
Our new Action Plan will further refine and target our efforts, to achieve our goal that every Tasmanian is able to live free from violence.
The Hearing Lived Experience Survey 2022 is now open, to help inform the new Action Plan. The Survey will build on our ground-breaking 2018 Survey by including victim-survivors’ lived experience of sexual violence in addition to family violence.
All Tasmanians are encouraged to participate in the Hearing Lived Experience Survey, which is anonymous and is available at www.safefromviolence.tas.gov.au.
If you or someone you know is impacted by family violence, please call the Family Violence Response and Referral Line 24/7 on 1800 633 937.
If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual violence, please call the state-wide Sexual Assault Crisis Line 24/7 on 1800 697 877.
In an emergency, always call 000.
