Qld orders royal commission into police response to domestic violence

The Queensland government will launch a royal commission into police responses to domestic and family violence, and provide a $363 million package to roll out coercive control laws.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk revealed the decision during a sitting of state parliament on Tuesday morning, as part of the government’s response to the Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce report handed to it five months ago.

Queensland Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk attend a march earlier in 2021 calling for action against gendered violence in Parliament. Credit: Jono Searle/Getty

“Let me make this very clear: our police service does an exemplary job,” Palaszczuk said. “Countless lives have been saved because of the men and women of our police service.

“But many survivors report that they did not receive an adequate response at their particular point in time.”

She said “historic and wide-reaching reforms” would ensue after more than 700 submissions to the taskforce drove its 89 recommendations. The taskforce, chaired by former court of appeal president Margaret McMurdo, is due to deliver its second and final report in June.

“Not one of us will solve the incidence of domestic and family violence,” Palaszczuk said. “It’s going to take all of us. Together.”

The government had welcomed the publication of the first report in early January, but stopped short of accepting all of its recommendations until Tuesday.

A commission of inquiry into the police service, an idea rejected by Commissioner Katarina Carroll and the police union at the time but considered by advocates to be key to the broader success of reforms, will be held over four months and hear from victims and survivors.

In a statement, Acting Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said police would co-operate fully with the inquiry and acknowledged instances “where we have not gotten it right”.

Palaszczuk said she would announce who would lead the inquiry on Tuesday, but declined to answer questions about whether it would probe the “widespread cultural issues” identified by the taskforce.

Under the government’s wider response to the taskforce’s report, police will trial a collaborative co-response model with domestic and family violence services in several locations.

The government will also introduce a bill to criminalise coercive control, the term used to describe insidious domestic violence behaviour such as controlling what somebody wears or who they see, by the end of 2023.

A “lengthy” period between the laws being passed and coming into effect formed part of the taskforce’s recommendations to ensure the community, police and criminal justice system were prepared.

“Currently the system responds to single acts of physical violence, but we know what women experienced in a controlling relationship is a pattern of abuse over time,” Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman told reporters.

The government will commit $106 million to improving safety for domestic and family violence victims when attending court, expand specialist courts, and roll out a “special strategy” designed with First Nations communities to reduce their representation in the criminal justice system.

Some advocates have warned a new criminal offence risked further harming vulnerable women, particularly given issues around the misidentification of victims and perpetrators — with related legislative changes to be made this year.

Families of slain women Hannah Clarke, Allison Baden-Clay and Doreen Langham were present in the public gallery for the announcement, and acknowledged by Palaszczuk and Fentiman during their statements.

Clarke’s father, Lloyd, welcomed the announcement. Asked at a later media conference if the proposed law changes would have saved Hannah and her children, he responded, “I’d like to think so”.

The Women’s Legal Service said the government’s commitment to action on all the McMurdo report’s recommendations was a “great step forward” for women and children.

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