The highly publicised deaths of two Queensland women allegedly at the hands of their estranged partners have prompted copycat threats to other women at risk, says the state’s key domestic violence crisis service.
DV Connect’s chief executive, Di Mangan, said the chilling threats were among those reported by clients whose numbers had doubled to 400 a day since Tara Brown and Karina Lock died last week.
It comes as the Palaszczuk government announced an extra $1.2m for the statewide crisis service and tabled draft laws that would punish those who breach domestic violence orders with up to seven years jail and give victims “special witness” status in court.
Mangan feared the unintended consequences of media attention given to the Brown and Lock cases were that “you’ll see more cases of it”.
“Some [DV Connect callers] were fearful the same thing was going to happen – some were told the same thing would happen,” she told reporters in Brisbane.
The cases spurred the government to speed up adopting wide-ranging recommendations from Quentin Bryce’s Not Now, Not Ever report – which focused on keeping safe women and children at risk from family violence – and appoint the former governor general to oversee their implementation.
On Tuesday when the bill was tabled, state MP Mark Furner told parliament that he had been forced to intervene when he feared for his daughter.
“It is the onset of simple things that demonstrate and lend itself to why we need to stand up regarding domestic violence,” Furner said. “Telling my daughter what to wear, asking what is on her phone or what is in her SMS messages – this is the early onset of domestic violence in young people in our society.
“As a father, I had to protect her. I had to go out there and defend her. Eventually through my involvement and through her understanding, she started to realise what was happening to her. Each and every one of us in this chamber has a mother, a wife, daughters and friends – females who need to be protected from this insidious disease. We need to stand up and condemn those people who are perpetrators that attack them.”
The increased funding to DV Connect comes after social workers told of the lack of frontline resources and accommodation for women and children in the initial throes of domestic violence crisis.
The premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said the government was acting on her promise last week that the service would receive “whatever extra resources they needed to deal with the upsurge in calls to the crisis lines”.
The extra funding would allow for more emergency accommodation and supplies for victims fleeing their homes, as well as four more trained staff, including one for a Mensline support service for male victims and perpetrators.
Mangan called on “any man who has been inflicting violence on his family or feels he may be about to, to have the courage to call Mensline and get help now”.
It came as a Brisbane family law expert questioned the effectiveness of a new specialised domestic violence court that began operating on the Gold Coast just weeks before the murders there.
A solicitor, Jennifer Hetherington, said a system already operating in New Zealand, which allowed victims to apply online to the family court for domestic violence orders, may offer the way forward.
Such applications were urgently dealt with by judges electronically. They could consider them at any time of day from anywhere with internet access.
Hetherington also said cases in NZ were dealt with faster and more cheaply by giving the family court jurisdiction over both domestic violence and parenting orders, and allowing it to consider such applications together.
• Women in danger should call triple zero immediately, while those suffering abuse can call DV Connect’s domestic violence hotline on 1800 811 811
