Gold Coast domestic violence continues to rise
Friday, 4 May 2018
LNP Shadow Minister for Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence Stephen Bennett today met with victims on the Gold Coast to mark the start of Domestic Violence Prevention month.
Mr Bennett said that domestic violence on the Gold Coast is out of control.
“The latest domestic violence statistics for the Gold Coast tell a heartbreaking story with breaches of domestic violence orders increasing by more than 25% in a year to over 2,300,” Mr Bennett said.
“It is incredibly alarming to hear of the number of DVO breaches on the Gold Coast.
“The number of offenders continually thumbing their noses and breaching these orders multiple times is simply not acceptable.
“Victims should be able to have confidence that court orders will protect them from further abuse but, sadly, under this soft-on-crime Labor government they aren’t worth the paper they’re written on if offenders continue to breach them.
“These aren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet. These are our daughters, mothers and grandmothers.”
LNP Shadow Minister for Women Ros Bates said Annastacia Palaszczuk needed to invest in prevention including better support networks and tougher laws.
“When you consider family violence has a national cost of $22 billion, on top of the hurt and pain it inflicts on many people’s lives, we can’t afford to stand still,” Ms Bates said.
“We need tough laws to ensure that breaches of these orders are treated seriously under the law, this is something that Labor simply can’t continue to ignore.”
On the Gold Coast in 2016/17 there has been:
• 2,394 breaches of Domestic Violence Orders an increase of more than 25% from 2015/16
• 1,278 repeated breaches of Domestic Violence Orders an almost 7% increase from 2015/16. This includes 175 offenders who have breached Domestic Violence Orders 5 times or more.
• 25,678 breaches across Queensland.