The findings of the Auditor-General’s performance audit of the Safer Families Levy, released today, are damning.

The report reveals a lack of transparency in the use of levy funds and a failure to use the funds strategically. The Auditor-General describes the ACT’s domestic and family violence response as having been “undermined”, pointing to the absence of “a performance monitoring strategy or evaluation framework to monitor and measure the outcomes and impacts of domestic and family violence initiatives funded through the Safer Families Levy”.

Independent Member for Kurrajong, Thomas Emerson MLA, made a commitment during his campaign to push for all future funds raised through the Safer Families Levy to go directly to frontline service providers.

Mr Emerson said that service providers with boots on the ground had a sector-specific, trauma-aware understanding of how best to meet the needs of vulnerable women and children, but were being hamstrung by chronic underfunding.

“I’ve spoken with women’s and children’s safety service providers who say they haven’t seen a cent of this funding. This report leaves it unclear as to whether key crisis service providers have received any increase in funding courtesy of the Safer Families Levy," said Mr Emerson.

“Frontline service providers are turning vulnerable women away. They’re crying out for more funding and are being forced to triage because they’re insufficiently resourced.

“We need to step up when it comes to family, domestic and sexual violence. It’s not good enough to be telling people experiencing violence in their homes that they’ll just have to wait it out.

“One of Canberra’s long-standing women’s refuges told me their funding was cut in 2013 and it took until 2023 for their funding to catch up, in dollar value, to the level it was 10 years prior.

“My supply-and-confidence agreement with the incoming Labor Government includes a commitment to ensure community sector funding accounts for growth in population, sector salaries, and complexity of client need.

“I look forward to the fulfilment of that commitment and speaking with the new Minister for the Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence about providing crisis support to everyone who needs it through effective, transparent and outcome-focused administration of the Safer Families Levy.” 

The levy, which is paid by households through their annual rates and increased to $50 per household in 2024-25, has raised over $46 million since its inception.

The ACT Government expects to raise almost $50 million in the four years to 2027-28 by further increasing the levy to $60 per household next financial year, and $70 per household the year after that.