Vow on victims’ services

No cuts to domestic violence help, says Premier

THERE will be no cuts to State Government services for the victims of domestic violence, Premier Will Hodgman said.

Returning to work after a winter break, Mr Hodgman attended a community cabinet meeting in the state’s North yesterday.

He was quizzed over opposition claims that government plans to cut spending by $450 million would impact on the victims of domestic and sexual violence. But he said that balancing the budget and looking after victims were not mutually exclusive.

“We have said repeatedly no matter what scare campaigns and misleading campaigns are undertaken by opposition parties — governments can and should be efficient.

“But we’ve made additional investments in this year’s budget: $26 million more into the second stage of our family violence and sexual assault action plan.

“That shows our commitment. The Opposition aren’t offering any ways forward or any ideas of their own, but the facts are our plan and our record has shown unprecedented and increased services for Tasmanians who are the victims of these horrendous crimes.”

But Mr Hodgman did not directly address questions relating to calls for increased funding for the Family Violence Counselling and Support Service.

Labor’s Michelle O’Byrne said the service was struggling to meet the needs of victims.

“It’s simply not acceptable that we can’t get an commitment from this government to increase staff to the family violence support service when they are so desperately in need of more resources and not even a commitment to quarantine this service from any cuts,” she said.

She said there was a 15 per cent increase in calls to police and a 30 per cent increase in calls to the service — which has just 10 staff.

“They need a doubling of staff to meet those needs. It is not good enough to say we care about family violence and about prevention if we are not there when they call for help.”