Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On 25 November 2017 we celebrate White Ribbon Day. It's a day when we, as men in particular, stand against violence against women. Just last week in this House, I spoke about the campaign Polished Man, which seeks to stop violence against children. So too we, as men, must do all we can to put an end to violence against women, which happens, unfortunately and sadly, most commonly in the domestic environment.

I should acknowledge that not all domestic violence occurs where men are the perpetrators. It sometimes happens where the woman in a relationship commits acts of domestic violence against her male partner, and that is equally damaging to the man that's impacted. But I'll leave that for another day.

Today in my local newspaper, the Sunshine Coast Daily, there was an excellent article which dealt with the all-too-common issue of domestic violence in my home state of Queensland. According to the Sunshine Coast Daily, the Queensland Police Union has been lobbying the Queensland state government to introduce an offence under the Queensland Criminal Code of 'commit domestic violence'. Many people in this place, and perhaps those who may be listening, wouldn't know that it wasn't an offence to commit an act of domestic violence. I'll say that again: in Queensland, it's not an offence to commit an act of domestic violence. Whilst some people may be charged with assault, it is not a specific offence. This is something that the Queensland Police Union has been pressing the Queensland state government on, and it's something that I support as a sensible reform.

It is only an offence in Queensland if a person breaches a domestic violence order. Whilst offenders can be charged with assault, the Queensland Police Union says that, by introducing the offence of 'commit domestic violence', less time would be spent by police applying for domestic violence orders through the civil jurisdiction of the Magistrates Court. Mr Leavers, who is the Queensland police union president, said it took two officers an average of four hours to apply for one domestic violence order. When you look at the statistics in Queensland, which are absolutely appalling, police lodged 7,144 applications for domestic violence orders with the Sunshine Coast and Gympie courts alone between 2012-13 and 2016-17. What those stats mean is that about 28,000 hours are spent per year in domestic violence order applications. That's work done by the police that could be spent doing other things which are obviously also important for police. Mr Leavers said that the domestic violence epidemic is creating a massive increase in workload for police and is, in turn, affecting police's ability to effectively undertake their job, and that stands to reason. If they are concentrating much of their time on domestic violence breaches, then they can't be out doing other work as well. So I call on the Queensland Labor government to support the Queensland Police Union's push. It's a sensible reform and it's something they should look at immediately.

When I was overseas recently, investigating and researching mental health, it really dawned on me that in Europe—which, similar to Australia, is not immune to domestic violence—one of the key causes that impacts on mental health is domestic violence, just as homelessness is often a result of mental health issues. If we want to resolve many of our mental health issues, particularly in our women, we must address the issue of violence against women. Thank you.

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