MOUNT Isa priest Fr Mick Lowcock has warned that more support for early intervention programs is needed to stop the scourge of domestic violence, that is currently resulting in high numbers of Indigenous men going to gaol.
Fr Mick, as he is known, is an unswerving advocate for better services for the Indigenous community in the red-dirt Queensland mining town where he has served for the last 30 years.
“We have to look at the whole question of anger in people’s lives,” he said, eying the latest Bureau of Statistics figures that show Australia’s incarceration rate now sits at 214 prisoners per 100,000 adult population, a near-record high.
For Fr Mick the tightening of DV laws in Queensland – including strangulation and soon-to-be introduced provisions regarding coercive control – will see more Indigenous men in gaol unless early intervention can change destructive and violent behaviours.
He cites new research that pinpoints drink driving and driving unlicensed as first signs of domestic violence.
“Particularly out here it’s true,” he said.
“What it means is if we could cut it off at the pass… get the magistrate to order offenders to come to us at that early stage to do some anger and relationship training there might be a much greater chance of lessening the amount of domestic violence.”
This week Fr Mick was a nominee for this year’s Queensland Senior Australian of the Year, for the charity he founded – the North West Queensland Indigenous Catholic Social Services Limited (NWQICSS) that provides 11 important support programs.
The award was won by Claude Harvey OAM for his inspirational work as a child protection campaigner and Bravehearts fundraiser.
Quietly spoken Fr Mick is not too disappointed – his outstanding pastoral and community service has already been recognised. In 2020 he was named a Queensland Great by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk as part of Queensland Day celebrations.
“It’s only because you’ve got a great team of people… who do all the work and make me look good,” Fr Mick said, referring to the 90 people, most of them Indigenous, who are employed by the NWQICSS.
Since arriving in Mount Isa in 1993, Fr Mick has been shaped by the poverty he witnessed amongst the town’s Indigenous people – whether it was sleeping rough in the dry Leichhardt riverbed or trying to raise a family on a meagre pension in bare, public housing.
“I think people are lost. They are living in two cultures. Some of the people have never made the adjustment to the Western world,” Fr Mick said.
“And a number of people, while they are Aboriginal, they’ve never had any culture at all.”
“Very early in Queensland history they stamped out culture. They weren’t allowed to speak language or anything like that.”
The cumulative impact, according to Fr Mick has been intergenerational trauma and an ongoing cycle of violence that results in gaol time unless nothing is done.
It’s against this background that NWQICSS has developed over the years providing programs for what Fr Mick describes as “the tough end”.
Early on, he helped set up Jangawalla Kitchen, a program that provided daily meals for the homeless and those being held in custody at the local police watch house.
NWQICSS became a registered charity in 2019, with a budget of $8 million. Revenue from government accounts for 90 per cent of funding, the rest comes mainly from donors.
“We’re dealing with people with strong addictions who are living homelessly – so we run a diversionary centre,” Fr Mick said.
“We have a child and family centre which is really trying to say get kids into early childhood education and look at their health issues and dealing with families getting signed up for a birth certificate when they born – all the things that are needed to get kids into kindergarten, prep and the early years of schooling.”
NWQICSS programs include a youth transitional hub supporting young people and families at risk, offering diversionary activities to encourage them away from offending.
It connects with youth in the justice system both in Mount Isa and in detention in Townsville.
“A new contract will identify 15-20 high risk kids who are in and out institutions and trying to work with them and particularly their families,” Fr Mick said.
“We need to do something with their families for the kids to survive.”
Fr Mick described “fatherless families” as a repetitive problem – “so the kids will become like the father – they will become addicted to drugs. They’ll have poor relationships. They’ll end up in gaol.”
Murri Men’s and Women’s Groups provide programs (for example domestic violence awareness for Court issues) that can help Indigenous offenders avoid going to gaol.
“The price of keeping a person in gaol for one day is extraordinary, let alone for a year,” Fr Mick said.
“So we’re saving the government a huge amount of money.”
In 2020-21, Australia s spent about $4 billion on prisons, at a cost to the taxpayer of each prisoner at $375 a day or $136,875 a year.
Other NWQICSS programs include the Riverbed Action Group Outreach Support Service (RAGOSS) assisting homeless Indigenous individuals and families access safe and secure accommodation, and the Arthur Petersen Diversionary Centre a 24 hour, 7 days a week, community centre for police diversion from custody for intoxicated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, offering them a place to sober up, as well as meals, laundry and showering facilities.
Fr Mick points to 33 years as a Police chaplain as the reason he understands the inner workings of the justice system as well as government agencies and departments. He currently sits on the State Government committee for Juvenile Justice.
Fr Mick is clear that there’s much more work to be done – and he hopes to win the support of willing donors.
One plan is providing Mount Isa with an integrated public transport system.
“Because when you haven’t got a public transport how do people get to hospital, court or clinics? How do they do their shopping. It’s a $35-$40 round trip by taxis – before you buy anything,” he said.
Another plan is to revamp an old shopping centre as a community centre at a cost of $10-$13 million.
“So, if there are any big philanthropists out there, I’m happy to talk,” he said.
As a final thought about turning vision into working projects Fr Mick has this to say: “If you are really passionate about something, it’ll happen. Just got to be patient.”
“Everything happens, but at one minute to midnight.”
Next year Fr Mick will celebrate 50 years as a priest.
He grew up in Bowen in the Whitsundays before studying at the provincial seminary in Brisbane, then moved around North Queensland where he served at Ingham, Townsville and Ayr, before arriving in Mt Isa.
