Hobart’s deputy lord mayor wants the city’s next council to set up a group of women to lead a whole-of-council approach to preventing violence against women.
Zelinda Sherlock said she would call on the new council to commit to establishing The Courage Collective, which she described as “a collective of courageous women dedicated to steering a whole-of council approach that advances council’s role in this space”.
She also plans to put the idea to the Local Government Association of Tasmania so it can be considered for adoption statewide.
The Hobart City Council already offers support for employees experiencing violence at home, including extra enterprise agreement provisions, emergency financial support and counselling.
Sherlock said “there is more that we can do”.
She will ask elected members to commit to prioritising the prevention of violence against women in future planning and budget processes, using approaches such as the our watch leadership model.
“Coercive control, domestic and family violence can quietly unravel a person’s confidence, identity and hope, with echoes that last for years,” she said.
“The deepest wounds are not always visible.”
Sherlock, who said she knew this “personally”, said councils had a role to play.
“At the local government level, while we cannot solve family violence alone, we cannot regard it as someone else’s responsibility,” she said.
Several community figures backed the proposal in video messages.
Former Australian senator Margaret Reynolds said: “Anything that affects people living in a given council area is a local government issue.”
Devonport Mayor Alison Jarman said councils needed to act.
“We are the grassroots and we need to be listening and then actioning and doing something about this,” she said.
Engender Equality chief executive Alina Thomas said she supported a specialist group within council and that it could model behaviour for the wider community by “setting a really new and fresh expectation of how we should be behaving”.
Tasmanian rapper and poet Grace Chia said local government could work with organisations to create preventative programs, including programs supporting men’s mental health.
Sherlock said she would ask that the approach be considered alongside the council’s other commitments, available resources and organisational capacity.
Hobarts deputy lord mayor role has attracted 10 candidates to contest at this year’s local government elections, with 32 people standing for nine councillor positions in the city.
Across the state, 430 candidates are standing for 213 councillor positions on Tasmania’s 29 councils.
Ballot packs were delivered to voters from October 5, with the poll closing at 2pm on October 27.
