Specialist domestic and family violence court for Cairns amid surging case numbers

A specialist domestic and family violence court will be established in Cairns to deal with surging increases in domestic violence-related charges.

A SPECIALIST domestic and family violence court will be established in Cairns by mid-next year to deal with surging year-on-year increases in domestic violence-related charges.

Making the announcement out front of the Cairns courthouse in Sheridan Street on Wednesday, Queensland Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman said $13.4m had been committed over four years to roll out the new court, dealing exclusively with domestic and family violence-related matters.

The funding is part of the state government’s $363m package responding to the Hear Her Voice Women’s Safety Taskforce Report, authored by former Supreme Court Justice Margaret McMurdo, outlining essential reforms required by the domestic violence service and justice systems.

Cairns is one of the busiest magistrates court jurisdictions in the state.

Alongside training for specialised magistrates and duty lawyers, the funding will also allow for the upgrade of infrastructure at the Cairns Courthouse, including the creation of a separate registry for domestic and family violence matters and safe rooms for women and children.

The Cairns Magistrates Courts dealt with more than 1200 applications for domestic violence orders in 2020/21 and more than 1400 charges of contravening a domestic violence order.

Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Shannon Fentiman chats with Cairns Regional Domestic Violence Service CEO Sandra Keogh after announcing funding for a specialist domestic and family violence court in Cairns.

The latest figures available show that in the 11 months of the 21/22 financial year to May 31, the courts had already dealt with a similar number of DV applications and a mammoth 2055 charges of contravening a domestic violence order – a 57.7 per cent increase.

Two women who are at the coalface of the region’s domestic violence work – Cairns Regional Domestic Violence Service CEO Sandra Keogh and North Queensland Women’s Legal Service principal Hayley Grainger – both welcomed Wednesday’s announcement and said the new court would be better able to hold perpetrators to account.

“This is a really, really exciting day and I can say first-hand the difference a specialist court can make to women but also to perpetrators,” Ms Grainger said.

“The difference between the service those women get – the increased safety, knowledge, empowerment, reduction in stress they feel going through that court compared to going through other general magistrates courts is amazing.”

Ms Fentiman said it was important to make sure systems of justice didn’t further traumatise women, and that perpetrators were held to account.

She said the new court would begin operating mid-next year after taking time to work with local services to ensure the specialist model would work for Cairns.

Originally published as Specialist domestic and family violence court for Cairns amid surging case numbers