Tasmanian Health Minister Bridget Archer has written to her federal counterpart expressing disappointment that Tasmania missed out on funding under the Federal Government’s inaugural LGBTIQA+ health grants program.
The move follows concerns raised by Equality Tasmania over the absence of funding for both Tasmania and the Northern Territory in the first round of grants. The organisation has called for the funding allocation to be reviewed.
In a letter to Equality Tasmania, Archer said she was disappointed by the outcome.
“I share your disappointment at the exclusion of any Tasmanian initiatives from the final funding allocation,” she wrote.
Archer said she had asked Federal Health Minister Mark Butler to explain why no Tasmanian projects were supported and urged him to engage with Tasmanian organisations, including Equality Tasmania.
Her intervention follows comments by Tasmanian independent federal MP Andrew Wilkie, who recently raised the issue in the House of Representatives.
“LGBTIQA Tasmanians matter as much as LGBTIQA people on the mainland,” Wilkie said on 18 August describing the decision as “mind-boggling”
Equality Tasmania spokesperson Rodney Croome welcomed support from both Archer and Wilkie, saying Tasmania’s exclusion from the inaugural funding round was not supported by available evidence.
“According to national and local studies, Tasmania has the nation’s highest rates of LGBTIQA+ mental health distress, thanks in part to being the last state to decriminalise homosexuality and the only state to criminalise cross-dressing,” Croome said.
“While some national projects were funded, our experience with such projects is that very little funding is allocated to Tasmania.
“We are still hopeful there will be a review, or at the very least that this won’t happen again.”
