A QUEENSLAND domestic violence taskforce is proposing 13 legal reforms following a series of murders and attacks on women and children during the last year.
The Queensland Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce has released its first discussion paper seeking community input about whether domestic violence should be made a stand-alone criminal offence, and how best to legislate against coercive control.
The paper also examines the need to create a register of serious DV offenders, and extend the use of real-time electronic tracking devices.
Taskforce chair, former Court of Appeal president Margaret McMurdo, hopes the discussion paper will “provoke thought and consideration about Queensland’s current and best future response to domestic and family violence”.
“Our understanding of domestic and family violence is continually evolving,” Ms McMurdo said.
“We are increasingly learning about the significant detrimental impacts of this type of abuse, including when it is not limited to physical violence. The community expects that our laws, systems and processes will respond to this.”
The taskforce is seeking responses to the paper from people with lived experience, service providers, legal professionals, and the wider community.
“We acknowledge there are strong and diverse views about criminalising domestic violence and coercive control,” Ms McMurdo said.
“We want Queenslanders to tell us what’s working, what isn’t working and what needs to change.”
A push for DV legal reform coincides with new frontline police efforts to tackle Queensland’s growing DV scourge.
Police Assistant Commissioner, Brian Codd, who commands a new Domestic, Family Violence and Vulnerable Persons unit, said “high risk” teams had been set up in eight locations across the state.
“The most dangerous place for Queenslanders is not outside nightclubs on our streets in the dark of night. The most dangerous place is behind closed doors in residential addresses,” Assistant Commissioner Codd said in a newly released Queensland Police Service DV documentary.
“We have invested heavily as an organisation in this capability.
“It’s a command that is going to be relatively lean, a small number of highly specialised people whose job it will be fundamentally to engage in that strategic setting and understanding what community and government expectations and public policy settings are and making sure they are translated into the actions being taken by our officers.”
Last month The Catholic Leader reported how mobile phones and apps are increasingly being used by perpetrators to gain coercive control.
Kristy Smith, a lawyer and a domestic violence survivor recently told ABC Radio how vulnerable women don’t feel supported by current laws and enforcement.
“At every turn I see victims getting let down by police or the justice system,” Ms Smith said.
Ms Smith pointed to her own experience attending Brisbane’s Roma Street police headquarters to have a DVO (domestic violence order) extended.
She said a police officer initially refused to help her fill out a DV variation order application, despite her own state of distress, and her request for authorisation to help complete the application on the spot.
“They basically laughed in my face and said ‘here’re the forms, do it yourself’,” Ms Smith said.
“I know I am privileged because I know my right’s when I go into a police station. I know that you have to help me here – and they tried to turn me away.
“How many vulnerable women are walking in to police stations trying to get help and being told ‘go do it yourself’, and then that was their one chance to get help?
“It’s horrific, and it’s not good enough.”
Each year, Queensland police deal with an exponential increase in DV cases.
“And now we’re sitting at 107,000 occurrences a year. We respond to all of those,” Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said in the QPS documentary.
She said the new Domestic, Family Violence and Vulnerable Persons unit had the role of interacting with other agencies and partners to work better, and advise her on key DFV matters.
DFV is the most scrutinised area of policing in Queensland both inside the force and by the Queensland public, Katarina Carroll said.
Police are looking at models where specialist DFV specialists work alongside police officers in dealing with DFV cases.
Assistant Commissioner Codd said police have invested heavily in changing culture and developing “a better understanding of the subtle elements of domestic and family violence” – including better supporting victims and survivor when they come for help.
“And we are working… around the clock trying to work out better ways of doing that,” Assistant Commissioner Cobb said at a recent media conference.
“We are doing a lot of work both with our recruits, our first years and now across every district in the state about highlighting those elements of coercive control that are things to be looking for in getting a holistic view of a domestic violence situation.”
The taskforce discussion paper gives an overview of how Queensland’s laws currently respond to domestic and family violence, outlines the risks and benefits of introducing new legislation, and presents 13 options for legislating against coercive control.
“From the taskforce’s perspective, no option is off the table” Ms McMurdo said.
The paper is the taskforce’s first step towards tabling a report in Queensland Parliament by October and delivering recommendations to the government by March next year.
“It’s important we gather as many views as possible,” Ms McMurdo said.
Information about the taskforce and making submissions can be found here.
