Archdiocese of Hobart-CatholicCare Tasmania, Family and Relationship Counselling Program and Specialised Family Violence Program
Application no: 20/06/047
Date granted: 3/07/2020
Date of expiry: 3/07/2023
Date advertised in Tasmanian Government Gazette: 15/07/2020
Relevant exceptions under the Act: Sections 25, 27(1)(d)
Description
This exemption was granted to permit the Roman Catholic Church Trust Corporation of The Archdiocese of Hobart trading as the Archdiocese of Hobart to advertise, recruit and employ one male only in the identified position of Family Counsellor / Family & Relationship Counsellor to be based in the south of the State, related to CatholicCare Tasmania's Family and Relationship Counselling Program and Specialised Family Violence Program (the Programs), on the basis that:
- The Programs provide therapeutic services to individuals, couples, families and children. In the case of working with children in particular, the gender of the counsellor can be an important consideration given the issues and needs of the child; and
- The targeted family violence service delivers interventions using a whole-of-family approach to provide clients with a comprehensive and integrated service, and it is important to have male children’s counsellors to gender allocate where appropriate; and
- CatholicCare Tasmania currently employs 14 counsellors, of which two are male. Demand for male-specific counselling in increasing State-wide, but in particular in the south; and
- There is increasing demand for both children and adults to see male counsellors as a result of COVID-19 and generally in relation to family violence, which CatholicCare is currently unable to meet.
