Survivors question $250K received by council to combat family violence

The adviser’s mission will entail assessing council practices to prevent domestic violence and connecting with local groups such as sporting associations, sporting clubs, schools and religious groups to deliver educational workshops to prevent domestic violence.

Carla, a victim-survivor, is adamant the money should be spent elsewhere.

“These initiatives would be a good starting point if the situation wasn’t so dramatic already,” she said.

“With a woman being killed every four days by her partner or former partner, prevention is not where the government should start.

“Yes, there is an urgent need for education, but councils aren’t the first place the government should be starting with.

“As a DV survivor, I can’t help but see this measure as a gutting misallocation of critical funds.”

Carla is sceptical about whether a better-resourced council will actually help anyone suffering at the hands of a violent partner.

“When I was with my abusive ex, I was not involved with the council, its staff or any community organisations,” she said.

“In fact, I wasn’t allowed to go out or socialise, and over time, he completely cut me off from my few friends.

“Like many people experiencing violence at home, I was living like a complete recluse.

“I am genuinely curious to see what measurable impacts the grants will have on our community.”

Carla’s arguments raise probing questions: did the government consider the extensive tools, research and recommendations available and consult with people with lived experience before launching its grant initiative?

According to Marie, another victim-survivor, educating police officers to respond to domestic violence-related jobs is where attention is critically and urgently needed.

On several occasions, Marie has reported life-threatening assaults to the police, only to be met with what she felt was a disturbing indifference.

“They seem numb to it,” she said.

Marie recalled a particular time when “several people called the police only for them to attend my place four hours later”.

“Two of my closest friends had intervened to protect me from my perpetrator, and both were bashed and thrown into the wall,” Marie said.

“One of them even had to go hospital to get stitches.”

When the two female police officers eventually arrived at the scene, “they did not even get out of the car”.

“They turned a blind eye,” Marie said.

Disturbingly, Marie was being held by her perpetrator when interacting with the attending police officers.

They didn’t even ask to talk to Marie in private, so she had no choice but to say that “everything was okay”.

Marie was “bruised head to toe”, but the pressure her perpetrator was constantly applying on her back when speaking to the officers was a clear indicator that she couldn’t ask for the help she desperately needed for fear of retaliation.

Another time, Marie went to her local police station extremely distressed after being badly assaulted, only to be told by a male police officer that if her partner “really wanted to kill her, she’d be dead by now”.

Unfortunately, Marie’s story is far from an isolated occurrence. Many victim-survivors have spoken of being re-traumatised by what they describe as appalling treatment by police and the lack of empathy some officers display.

Given such experiences, it is fair to assume that some victims-survivors feel deterred from reporting crimes and that the available DV figures understate the reality of the situation.

A review of NSW police responses to domestic and family violence was conducted in June 2023 and shed new light on the issue.

The following figures focus on 222 complaints received between July 1, 2017 and July 1, 2021 about police officers responding to domestic and family violence incidents. The findings of the NSW Law Enforcement Conduct Commission report are sobering, yet they represent only the tip of the iceberg.

Some 32 per cent of the complaints about investigations involved officers who had been personally implicated in domestic and family violence incidents.

Eleven of these 60 officers had been previously investigated by the NSW Police Force prior to the incident that was the subject of the complaint and, in some cases, the officers were repeat domestic violence offenders.

It was found that when NSW police conducted investigations, 77 per cent of the time they were performed by officers from the same command as the offending officers. No information about the removal of the offending officers’ firearms was collected either.

Of the 152 reviewed allegations that police failed to comply with the 2018 code of operating procedures, 67 per cent confirmed officers’ failure to adhere to the force’s own investigating standards.

Although only representing a small portion of the work done by NSW police, the figures and several survivors’ accounts suggest funding could be better used to train domestic violence responders rather than councils.

Victim-survivor Jamila says it’s time for effectively targeted action.

“We need our governments to stop being in denial,” she said.

“We demand real and effective action, and we want it now.

“Perpetrators are not monsters with horns or some imaginary beasts. Just like rapists, they are among us.

“They are our brothers, uncles, fathers, cousins, boyfriends, husbands, grandfathers.

“They are around us at work, at sporting events, in our community groups; they are our neighbours.

“How they present to the world and act behind closed doors is often worlds apart.

“It is time for us to collectively acknowledge this.

“Education and accountability should start with police officers. Until the government takes a good look at itself and those representing it, its claim of ‘wanting to get rid of domestic violence in one generation’ cannot be taken seriously.”

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