The report – Not Now, Not Ever: Putting an End to Domestic and Family Violence in Queensland – was handed over to the Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Saturday by the The Honourable Quentin Bryce AD CVO, chair of the Special Taskforce on Domestic and Family Violence.
The report delivered 140 recommendations in the report with a focus on supporting victims and holding offenders to account for their actions. Society and victims themselves often, incorrectly, feel the onus is on the victims to stop the violence.
Bryce said violence against women was “the most serious human rights issue in the world”. “We are all alarmed by the statistics – they are shocking – but they do not do full justice that we have heard about from survivors,” she said. “Their stories could have come from war zones. Stories of women brutalised, raped, beaten, controlled, isolated. These violent actions are not the actions of civilised people and they will not be tolerated.”
Bryce has stated in the past that cultural change in men was “the heart of the domestic violence issue”. “It’s been seen as a women’s issue because it’s been women who have set up the refuges, provided the services, supported women and their children,” she said. The key drivers of change should be men and police.
Campaigns such as The White Ribbon campaign is Australia’s only national, male led Campaign to end men’s violence against women making women’s safety a man’s issue. The campaign works through primary prevention initiatives involving awareness raising and education, and programs with youth, schools, workplaces and across the broader community.
The taskforce report goes much further than awareness campaigns and recommends perpetrators be held responsible including a specialised domestic violence court and a new criminal offence of non-lethal strangulation amongst other strong recommendations.
The Premier commended the taskforce and each of its members who completed the report within a six month timeframe and stated that the government would take the lead on addressing domestic violence, but that the government cannot do it alone. “As a community, we all have a responsibility to look after one another,” she said. “We need to stand up and say no to domestic violence.”
The taskforce has heard harrowing accounts throughout regional rural and metropolitan Queensland. In places like Gladstone, a hub for fly-in fly-out miners, domestic violence complaints were 97% higher than the state average.
As a teenager growing up in Gladstone- well before the influx of FIFO workers – I witnessed my best friend’s dad kicking her down the back stairs because she accidently taped over a football video. All the adults I spoke to about the incident maintained that it was a private matter – to be dealt with in the family.
In another incident, a domestic broke out in a crowded suburb- surrounded by houses to the side, back and front. I questioned the adult I was staying with about why he wasn’t calling the police or going across the road to intervene. His reply was that it was best not to get involved. The term itself- domestic violence- indicates somehow that this violence is separate to common assault. That because it occurs inside a home, the perception persists that this violence is different which means it is ignored.
The media is a critical tool in raising the heat on this issue; changing the perception that this is a hidden issue. So where did this report feature in Queensland’s newspaper The Sunday Mail? On page 9, a brief third of a page summarises the report, overshadowed by a feature about a footballer’s wedding.
Whilst thousands of women and children across Queensland are not safe in their own homes, the page 1 feature is a story about a married couple who have never had sex.
Whilst one in six women will experience domestic violence, politicians consume airplay for leadership spills.
Whilst one in four children will witness or experience domestic violence, the Sunday paper covering the unveiling of this critical report demote it to page 9; a more important feature on page 2 is world champion surfer Stephanie Gilmore in her togs.
One Australian woman a week is killed through violent relationships, while people are glued to social media more concerned about the threat of ISIS.
Not Now, Not Ever: Putting an End to Domestic and Family Violence in Queensland is a critical first step in raising awareness about the evils of domestic violence. Now we need action from the Queensland Government, the community and the media to end it.