Email sent to Independent MLC for Nelson, Meg Webb, on 20.04.26
Subject: Thank You for Speaking at the No More Violence Rally – Protecting Single-Sex Services for Female Survivors
Dear Ms Webb,
I write on behalf of Women Speak Tasmania to thank you for addressing the “No More Violence Rally” on Parliament Lawns yesterday, Sunday 19 April 2026. Your call for the May State Budget to guarantee adequate resourcing for sex-based violence prevention and support services was important and timely. We support your warning that Tasmania’s funding for these programs has dropped to just 0.9% of the budget — one of the lowest in Australia — despite our state’s higher-than-average rates of domestic, family and sexual violence.
Like you, we believe sex-based violence is preventable and that women and girls must not bear the cost of insufficient funding.
However, funding alone is not enough.
The vast majority of victims of male violence (Tasmanian Police data consistently show 82–88% of family violence offenders are male) require single-sex trauma-informed services for safe recovery. Female-only wards, bedrooms, bathrooms, refuges, crisis accommodation and therapeutic groups are essential for safety and privacy. Research confirms that “gender-neutral” policies can re-traumatise female survivors in these settings.
As UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls Reem Alsalem has clearly stated: “You cannot protect what you cannot define.”
Without explicitly defining and protecting biological sex in Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Act 1998, services for women and girls remain at risk of being forced into mixed-sex arrangements. This directly undermines the trauma-informed care we all want to deliver.
We therefore ask for your support for our petition: Fix Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Law – Protect Women and Girls by Adding ‘Sex’ as a Protected Category.
Adding “sex” as a protected attribute would give services the legal clarity they need to maintain single-sex spaces without fear of funding loss or discrimination claims. This reform would strengthen the very outcomes the rally and your speech called for.
You can view and support the petition here: https://www.change.org/p/fix-tasmania-s-anti-discrimination-law-protect-women-and-girls-by-adding-sex
We would welcome any opportunity to meet with you or provide further information on how protecting sex in law would improve trauma-informed mental health services and refuges for Tasmanian women and girls.
Thank you again for speaking out at the rally. We look forward to your leadership on ensuring real safety and recovery for female survivors.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Elizabeth Caballero
Retired General Practitioner
President | Women Speak Tasmania
cc: Premier: The Hon Jeremy Rockliff MP
cc: Minister for Women and the Prevention of Family Violence: The Hon Jane Howlett MP
Reply by Tasmania Premier Jeremy Rockliff on 04.05.26
