Responses to the Taskforce recommendations

Response to Report One from the Taskforce

The Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce (the Taskforce) released its first report Hear her voice – Report One – Addressing coercive control and domestic and family violence in Queensland (Report One) in December 2021.

This report makes 89 recommendations that seek to further reform the justice and domestic and family violence (DFV) specialist service systems to ensure they keep victims safe and hold perpetrators accountable.

The Taskforce recommended the creation of a new offence to criminalise coercive control. The report made it clear that system-wide reform is required prior to the creation of this new offence.

These reforms are intended to ensure the justice system shifts to recognising and responding to DFV and coercive control as a pattern of behaviour over time in the context of a relationship.

The Queensland Government’s response to Report One

The Queensland Government considered the recommendations of Report One and on 10 May 2022 released a supporting or supporting-in-principle of all the Taskforce's 89 recommendations and work is now underway to implement them.

It is recognised that coercive control constitutes a pattern of behaviours perpetrated against a person to create a climate of fear, isolation, intimidation and humiliation. Fundamentally it is about power and control.

The first round of legislative reforms to strengthen Queensland’s response to coercive control—the Domestic and Family Violence Protection (Combating Coercive Control) and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2023— commenced on 1 August 2023. These reforms aim to strengthen existing laws to address the patterned nature of coercive control and limit the ability of perpetrators to further traumatise victims during the court process.

On 11 October 2023 the Queensland Government introduced into Parliament the Criminal Law (Coercive Control and Affirmative Consent) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023 (the Bill). The Bill includes significant legislative amendments that seek to strengthen domestic, family and sexual violence (DFSV) laws, and provide additional protections for victim-survivors. The Bill includes landmark legislative amendments that—if passed—will amend the Criminal Code to establish the standalone offence of coercive control.

System-wide reform is necessary before the new offences come into effect. The Queensland Government’s approach to implementation of the recommendations is broadly consistent with sequencing proposed in the Taskforce’s 4-phase plan to prioritise actions.

The Queensland Government response focuses on the following key action areas for reform:

• systemic reforms across Queensland’s criminal justice system
• increased awareness-raising in the community and improved primary prevention
• improving DFSV service system responses, specifically integrated service responses and high-risk teams, perpetrator interventions and co-response
• training, education and change management across parts of the DFSV and justice system
• improvements to police responses to DFSV through new and continuing initiatives to address whole-of-services transformational change
• enhancements to Queensland Courts to ensure the safety of victims
• a suite of legislative amendments
• governance, reporting and accountability mechanisms.

Read more about the Queensland Government response to each individual recommendation of Report One.

You can also read more about the Queensland Government's progress on implementation of the recommendations from both reports.

Independent Commission of Inquiry into Queensland Police service responses to DFV

The Queensland Government’s response to Report One—as recommended by the Taskforce—includes the establishment of an Independent Commission of Inquiry into Queensland Police Service responses to domestic and family violence (the Commission of Inquiry).

The Commission of Inquiry commenced 30 May 2022, with its final report provided to government on 14 November 2022. The report was publicly released on 21 November 2022 with the Queensland Government supporting in principle all 78 recommendations.

Read more about the Queensland Government's progress on implementation of the recommendations from the Commission of Inquiry.

Response to Report Two from the Taskforce

The Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce (the Taskforce) released its second and final report Hear her voice – Report Two – Women and girls' experiences across the criminal justice system (Report Two) on 1 July 2022.

This report focused on women’s experiences in the criminal justice system as victim-survivors of sexual violence and as accused persons and offenders. The report includes 188 recommendations to improve women and girls’ experiences of the criminal justice system.

The Queensland Government’s response to Report Two

The Queensland Government has considered all 188 recommendations of Report Two and supports 103 recommendations in full, supports 71 recommendations in principle, and 14 recommendations are noted.

The Queensland Government response aims to significantly improve the experiences of Queensland women and girls who come into contact with the criminal justice system as victim-survivors of sexual violence and as accused persons and offenders. The response focuses Queensland Government efforts on:

• progressing systemic and legislative reform
• placing victim-survivors at the centre
• working with First Nations communities
• reshaping community attitudes about sexual consent and sexual violence
• meeting demand for sexual violence support services across the state
• appropriate court management and sentencing for women and girls as accused
• delivering justice
• rehabilitating women in prison and girls in detention
• measuring our performance—governance, monitoring and evaluation.

The Queensland Government will progress amendments to move to an affirmative model of consent, which will better reflect community expectations of equality and mutual respect in sexual relationships and will drive changes in the way sexual offences are prosecuted and defended. Other legislative amendments will recognise ‘stealthing’ as rape and reform the laws of evidence and procedure as they apply to sexual offences.

Government will also renew its focus to meet the needs of women and girls as accused persons and offenders through specialist court models and court-based programs operating in Queensland, including strengthening the Murri Court model and programs to support the rehabilitation of women in prison and girls in detention.

Read the full Queensland Government response to each individual recommendation of Report Two.