Shannon Fentiman announces new domestic violence team for Rockhampton
A new high risk team will be based in Rockhampton to help intervene earlier in domestic violence situations and give crucial assistance to local women and children.
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Central Queensland domestic and family violence victim support services have expressed their excitement with the announcement of a new support team to be based in Rockhampton.
A new High Risk Team made up of representatives from the Queensland Police Service, Queensland Health, the Department of Housing and various local support services will play a key role in ensuring vulnerable women don’t slip through the cracks.
Queensland Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman was in Rockhampton on Tuesday to announce the city as one of three new sites for the groups alongside Townsville and Redlands.
The group in Rockhampton will also add to the eight existing teams operating in Mount Isa, Cairns, Mackay, Caboolture, Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan, Beenleigh and Cherbourg.
“I’m very pleased that no matter where you are in Queensland, if you are in a high risk domestic and family violence situation, we will now be identifying those red flags earlier, intervening earlier before more blue police tape surrounds another family home,” she said.
Manager of the Rockhampton Women’s Shelter Beverley Schimkee said they were excited to be part of the initiative.
“A High Risk Team will help deliver a cross-agency response to the most vulnerable people in our community and the Rockhampton Women’s Shelter welcomes the opportunity to be part of this collaborative initiative that will intervene early and help reduce domestic violence,” she said.
“We’ve lost far too many women to domestic violence and Rockhampton is no exception, having a High Risk Team in Rockhampton to respond early and reduce instances of that happening is a very exciting measure.”
Ms Schimkee said one of the biggest things domestic and family violence escapees struggled with was finding housing.
“We’re seeing very high demand for services but with the housing situation at the moment it’s also very difficult to move women out of refuge,” she said.
“Rentals in the private market are unaffordable for the women in our refuge and we’re not getting any offers for public housing at the moment, so that makes a real bottleneck in the women’s shelter.”
Ms Fentiman said the High Risk Team would start work “very soon” with more consultation to happen in the community.
She said she was hopeful the Rockhampton team would be up and running early in the new year.
“A 2019 evaluation from Griffith University found that High Risk Teams were better working to protect victims of violence, because we were intervening earlier and sharing that critical information at an earlier stage,” she said.
“Taking that successful evaluation, we have now rolled out these High Risk Teams in many locations and they are working.
“The task-force, led by Margaret McMurdo, heard directly from women and services that have been involved in these teams and they recommended that we bolster resources to the existing teams, but more importantly start expanding them right across the state.”
Acting Superintendent from Rockhampton Police Ben Carroll said the local QPS was excited for the new High Risk Team to be based in the region.
“We will never police our way out of domestic and family violence, it’s only through the collaborative efforts of government and non-government agencies working together in a case management approach that we will work to address this scourge on our society,” he said.
“We’re very fortunate to have excellent partners across government and non-government sectors here in Rockhampton to work on domestic and family violence.
“This is formalising an arrangement we currently have in place with our agency partners and will provide us with some excellent resources and capabilities to enable us to work even harder to address domestic and family violence.”
Ms Fentiman said more than half a million dollars in additional funding for domestic and family violence services would also be invested in the region.
“We’ve allocated more than $566,000 of extra funding, as part of $22.5 million being provided to services over the next three years, plus a share of additional funding also provided to CentaCare and St Vincent de Paul who operate services in Rockhampton,” she said.
“We know this funding will make a real difference to vulnerable Queenslanders most at risk.”
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