The federal government says states and territories “need to deliver” on their pledges to hire 500 domestic violence workers after missing a June progress deadline by a substantial margin.
Labor pledged in opposition to “fund 500 new community sector workers to support women in crisis”. An October 2022 budget commitment, not long after Labor won government, pledged $169m for 200 workers to be employed in the 2022 and 2023 financial years, and 100 in 2024-25.
Social services minister Amanda Rishworth said states and territories had agreed to a target of hiring 352 of the 500 workers by 30 June this year. But the latest statistics, released this week, found just 94.4 full-time equivalent workers had been hired, among a total cohort of 108 hired.
New South Wales hired just six workers; Victoria hired 11, Queensland 30, Western Australia seven, South Australia 25, Tasmania 17, Australian Capital Territory five, and Northern Territory seven.
Rishworth said state governments have the federal funds to hire those workers, and that she is eager to see them come into the system to help address domestic and family violence.
“We want the frontline of support for women and families fleeing violence to continue to grow sustainably,” she said.
“States and territories signed up to roll out 352 workers by June 30 this year as part of a phasing in of the commitment. They were clear on that commitment and have now not met that June 30 deadline.”
NSW said it had progressed tender evaluations and contract negotiations for its 2024-25 quota, and expected contracts for last year’s quota to be in place “shortly after” 30 June. Victoria said it was hiring a further 20 roles, and in a statement to Guardian Australia, a state government spokesperson said it had now recruited 33 workers total.
Queensland, however, said “like other jurisdictions, is experiencing challenges in attracting, recruiting and retaining appropriately qualified specialist frontline domestic, family and sexual violence workers”, and that it was recruiting another 25 roles.
Other state government sources conceded they too were having difficulty securing qualified staff, which had led to delays.
A Victorian government spokesperson admitted there was “more work to do to keep women and children safe”, saying it began recruitment “immediately” after receiving its final funding in early 2024, and had now beat its 30 June target of 28 workers by hiring 33 in total.
A spokesperson for Queensland’s justice department said it had executed contracts with non-government organisations to meet its targets. They said 30 workers had now started work and specialist services had been allocated funding for 64 workers.
The Queensland government was also “continuing to work with services who are experiencing recruitment challenges”.
It is understood NSW expects 118 workers, its target for 30 June, to be in place by September, and for 148 to be hired in the 2024-25 year.
“We are working hard to ensure that these roles are filled as soon as possible, acknowledging there may be recruitment challenges particularly in rural communities. We will continue to work with the DFV sector to this end,” a NSW government spokesperson said.
Rishworth called violence against women and children a “national shame” that “must end”, noting the federal government’s $3.4bn pledges toward women’s safety. She said she was keen to see the 500 workers on board as soon as possible.
“We have been working from the day we were elected to deliver our commitment on 500 frontline workers – negotiations commenced with states and territories in 2022 and the requirements for these workers to ensure they were appropriately placed in areas of need were always clear,” Rishworth said.
“We expect them to deliver on their commitment and we will continue to work with them to ensure workers come online in a timely way. States and territories now need to deliver.”
Earlier this week, the Coalition were highly critical of the failure to meet the latest deadline to hire workers, blaming the Labor federal government.
Deputy Liberal leader and shadow minister for women, Sussan Ley, said prime minister Anthony Albanese should “stand up and accept responsibility for failing to deliver the promised 500 new domestic violence workers and fix this.”
“Regardless of your political views, if you care about action on domestic violence, you should expect the prime minister to deliver on his commitments here,” she said.
“As it stands it is unlikely we will see all 500 promised workers on the ground by the next election and that would be a black mark on this prime minister’s record.”