Domestic violence workers: states told to hire faster as Albanese government’s 500 staff pledge hit by major delays

Finance minister Katy Gallagher on Sunday said only about 30 of the promised 500 staff had been hired by states so far. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

The federal government has told the states to expedite a $170m program to hire 500 new domestic violence workers, with New South Wales admitting it could have moved faster to get workers on the ground.

The Albanese government has faced Coalition criticism for the fact only a fraction of the 500 workers have actually started work under the program, but it is the state governments who need to hire the staff – a task they have not met, despite growing community pressure and federal frustrations.

Government sources from several states on Tuesday blamed the slow hiring progress on factors including difficulty finding qualified workers and that the situation was exacerbated, some said, by an agreed need to hire staff from specific backgrounds or areas to assist priority groups.

But the NSW domestic violence service claimed the sector hasn’t actually received the funding it needs and that this had delayed the hiring of new workers.

Federal Labor’s pledge, an October 2022 budget commitment, aimed to hire 200 new workers each year in 2022 and 2023 and a further 100 in 2024-25.

The federal government has resisted publicly blaming the states for the delay, but the minister for women and finance, Katy Gallagher, on Sunday said only 30 of the promised 500 staff had been hired by the states so far. The states have now agreed to a target of 352 of the 500 workers by 30 June.

The social services minister, Amanda Rishworth, on Tuesday said “my expectation is that states and territories will work expeditiously to actually get these workers on board”.

While some state governments have only locked in a handful of new staff, and the NSW minister responsible has admitted it would have been better to move faster, the Victorian government insisted it had only received the federal funding recently.

“The agreement with the Federal Government for the rollout of this funding was finalised in early 2024 with funding received in February and recruitment currently underway for the first 59 positions,” a Victorian government spokesperson said.

Guardian Australia understands the funding for the $170m staffing plan was released from the federal government last year in two instalments, in mid- and late-2023, to most states. Victoria received the first of its payments in 2023 and the second earlier this year, because the state was negotiating its own agreement with the federal government, which would see Victoria hire a lower number of workers in earlier years of the multi-year agreement.

Although government sources in several states pointed to a shortage of trained workers, the Domestic Violence NSW deputy chief executive, Elise Phillips, said it was “definitely not” correct to say the state was having issues with recruiting workers. Phillips said NSW had a strong and qualified workforce to draw from.

“It’s that services themselves haven’t yet received the funding to be able to commence that recruitment process,” Phillips said.

The federal government allocates funding to state governments who then give contracts to domestic violence sector groups to hire the staff.

Phillips put the delay down to the state government determining where additional staff were most needed, but added the domestic violence sector was “frustrated” by how long it had taken. It’s understood NSW has taken longer than other states to determine the priority locations and populations in most need.

“It’s likely that we’re still at least another couple of months away from having those workers on the ground,” Phillips said.

Jodie Harrison, the NSW minister for domestic violence prevention, on Monday said only “about five” of the state’s promised 148 workers had been employed. She told the ABC the government was working “to analyse where gaps are”.

Asked if recruiting only five workers was good enough, Harrison conceded “it would be really wonderful if we could have moved faster”.

In a statement to Guardian Australia, Harrison said she expected contracts for positions to be in place from June and recruitment to follow. NSW on Monday announced $48m for specialist workers for children and young people, which she said was “additional to the Commonwealth money.”

In Victoria the premier, Jacinta Allan, said agencies had “definitely started” recruiting staff, but claimed the funding had only been finalised in recent months.

“The funding that was provided by the federal government I think was allocated last year and those funding arrangements to release the funding has only just been finalised in March this year,” she said on Monday.

A spokesperson from Queensland’s justice department said the state was also making progress.

“To date, organisations have accepted 62 workers positions, which are expected to commence by the end of June,” they said.

“We welcome the federal government’s support and are in the process of issuing contracts to non-government organisations to ensure we meet our allocation under the initiative.”