Email sent to Launceston Mayor and councillors on 24 August 2026
Dear Mayor Garwood and Councillors,
I write on behalf of Women Speak Tasmania regarding the proposed redevelopment of the changeroom facilities at the Launceston Aquatic Centre.
We recognise that the existing facilities are ageing and support a genuine upgrade. However, the proposed design appears to remove the existing male and female changerooms and replace them entirely with an all-gender model of individual cubicles. This is not a minor refresh — it is a fundamental change to how women, girls, men and boys will use intimate facilities at one of Northern Tasmania’s major public aquatic centres.
We understand feedback was sought only through hallway signage and a suggestion box, with the period closing on Friday 21 August 2026. Regular users have told us they were unaware of the proposal until it was shared online, despite attending the Centre regularly. Many only learned of it after the deadline.
The Launceston Aquatic Centre serves not only Launceston residents but families, schools, sporting groups and individuals from across Northern Tasmania. A change of this significance requires far more than limited on-site notices that many users never saw.
We therefore ask the City to publicly clarify:
- When the all-gender design was first developed and who approved the decision to remove sex-separated facilities
- What consultation occurred before the design was finalised
- How the consultation was advertised
- How many responses were received and what issues were raised
- How (if at all) those responses have informed the final design
There does not appear to be any publicly available comprehensive risk assessment addressing privacy, sexual harassment, voyeurism, child safeguarding, behaviour management, or operation during peak periods.
Individual cubicles provide privacy inside the cubicle. They do not address shared circulation areas, entrances, exits, waiting spaces, or the presence of the opposite sex in intimate environments. Women and girls — including those who have experienced sexual violence or trauma, and those from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds — should not be required to accept the loss of single-sex facilities as the price of “inclusion”.
True inclusion means providing more choice, not fewer. Individual private facilities can (and should) be offered alongside dedicated female and male options.
We ask the City of Launceston to:
- Pause the all-gender-only model until proper, transparent community consultation has occurred.
- Conduct and publish a comprehensive safety, privacy and safeguarding risk assessment.
- Publish the concept plans, design brief and decision-making documentation.
- Provide a clear public account of the consultation process to date.
- Consult directly with regular users, women and girls, parents, people with disability, sporting and swimming organisations, schools, and culturally diverse communities.
- Consider a mixed model that retains dedicated female and male facilities while also providing individual private options.
- Explain publicly the evidence and risk-management considerations that led to the preferred design.
Public infrastructure should serve the whole community. Inclusion does not require the removal of established privacy and safety options for women and girls.
We would welcome the opportunity to meet with the Mayor, Councillors and relevant officers to discuss these concerns.
We look forward to a substantive response.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Elizabeth Caballero
Retired General Practitioner
President | Women Speak Tasmania
