URGENT REFORMS: Police overwhelmed with DV call outs

Maryborough MP Bruce Saunders is calling for an urgent reform of laws concerning domestic violence, saying offences were tying up police resources in the city.

He said officers were "hammered by domestic violence" jobs.

Mr Saunders said domestic violence was one of two big issues facing the community, with the other being hooning.

He said police were expected to act as social workers, especially on the weekend when other services were limited or unavailable.

Domestic violence breaches spiked in the Fraser Coast's smaller towns in 2020, with both Howard and Tiaro recording increases in these types of offences.

Howard recorded 35 domestic violence-related breaches from January to November last year, which is up 13 offences in the first 11 months of 2019.

About 30 cases were reported in Tiaro between the same time period in 2020.

That is in comparison to the nine offences during the year before.

MyPolice also shows Hervey Bay recorded one less protection order breach in 2020 with 431.

Maryborough recorded 473 breaches compared with the 495 in the same period in 2019, with March the hardest hit month with 89 breaches.

One idea Mr Saunders put forward was allowing police to issue tickets barring those who committed offences from returning to the home to continue to abuse their partners.

He said he had spoken to Police Minister Mark Ryan about his concerns and they were working together to create reforms to address his concerns.

Mr Saunders said whether the offender was male or female, more needed to be done to ensure police had time to carry out their other duties.

"This is the biggest crisis we are facing," he said.

More money had to be spent on resources focused on preventing people from reoffending, such as Men Choosing Change programs, he said.

Money was also needed to assist victims who had nowhere to turn, he said.

Other government agencies needed to be placed on a roster to assist police on the weekends, Mr Saunders said.

A spokesman for Mr Ryan said there was no doubt that reporting of domestic violence matters to police has increased.

"That trend has been particularly evident during COVID-19," he said.

"The government took urgent action to support the victims of domestic and family violence victims with an immediate injection of almost $5.5 million to help manage the increase in demand for services arising from the pandemic.

"The government is also boosting support for essential government funded services to provide additional support to people in need of assistance.

"When responding to domestic violence matters, police have the authority to issue on the spot Police Protection Notices to the respondent.

"This requires them to be of good behaviour and not to commit domestic violence against the aggrieved.

"It may also prevent them from contacting the aggrieved or coming within a certain distance of a premises for 24 hours.

"In addition, the Queensland Police Service has developed a new online Domestic Violence reporting tool for people to report non-life-threatening matters.

"This can be found on the police website at www.police.qld.gov.au.

"The Queensland Police Service advises that the increase in the reporting of DV matters to police can be in part attributed to public confidence in the capacity of police to deal with domestic violence matters.

"The community can rest assured police will never relent in their efforts to support the victims of domestic violence and bring the perpetrators to justice."

A spokesman for Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman said during COVID, almost 1 in 10 women in a relationship had experienced domestic and family violence, with two thirds saying attacks started or became worse.

"So we know the additional pressure our frontline responders, and our police have been under because of the pandemic," he said.

"That's why the Palaszczuk Government invested $152 million in Queensland women and support services for victims of domestic and family violence this financial year.

"Ensuring our frontline responders, especially police, are properly resourced is one of our top priorities.

"We have been, and will continue to work closely with the Police Minister and Police Commissioner so we can deliver outcomes for our police that they need to continue to keep Queenslanders safe.

"The Palaszczuk Government implemented all 140 recommendations in the landmark Not Now: Not Ever report and while significant progress has been made, there is still more that the Queensland Government wants to do to eliminate domestic and family violence from our community."

If you are in need of support, contact 1800 RESPECT.