Taskforce chair worries LNP has ‘abandoned’ key DV recommendations

Queensland’s leading figure on domestic violence reform says the government seems to have ditched key recommendations from her work, as the alleged murder of a mother heaped pressure on the LNP over its funding priorities.

In rare public remarks about her wound-up Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce, Margaret McMurdo AC – a retired judge and past Court of Appeal president – said public updates on action toward almost 300 recommendations had dried up.

This was despite a key ask from the taskforce’s first Hear Her Voice report, published in 2021, for an independent implementation supervisor to oversee the reforms and publicly report on progress twice a year.

“What continues to worry me is the taskforce’s critical recommendations 88 and 89 appear to be abandoned, despite the minister saying the government is committed to implementing every recommendation of the taskforce report,” McMurdo told this masthead.

“This has not been done. The new group formed to take on the role of the implementation supervisor has not done it either,” McMurdo said in response to this masthead’s questions – her first public remarks about the taskforce’s work since its final report in 2022.

“The government seems to have abandoned a critical part of the taskforce recommendations. Meanwhile, our mothers, daughters, sisters and granddaughters continue to die from this continuing scourge of domestic and family violence.”

McMurdo’s taskforce was set up by the Palaszczuk government after it made an election vow to outlaw coercive control and hear experiences of women across the justice system.

In the first of the group’s two reports, calls were made for sweeping reforms across the criminal justice, policing and corrections systems. A second report was published in 2022.

One key recommendation was an inquiry into police responses to domestic violence. In 2022, this inquiry by Judge Deborah Richards reiterated the calls for an implementation supervisor, among other recommendations, including a civilian-led police integrity unit.

The eventual supervisor’s final progress report in November 2024 noted that while extensive effort had been put into the reform program, some foundational elements “remain in the early stages”. The office was quietly wound up last year.

Asked by this masthead which specific taskforce-related programs had ended, Camm declined to elaborate, pointing only to the fact her government’s budget spend on the sector was higher than in Labor’s last budget.

At a Toowoomba media conference on Tuesday, Premier David Crisafulli said suggestions funding had been cut were “not correct” and deferred further questions to Treasurer David Janetzki, who also claimed talk of cuts was wrong.

Camm has declined to answer this masthead’s questions about whether the slated 2025 review of a separate pilot program that has had its funding ended was conducted and, if so, what this had recommended.

But in correspondence to Mel Arnost – chief executive of new sector peak body the Queensland Domestic and Family Violence Alliance – shared with this masthead, Camm’s office gave a slightly more detailed explanation.

“We know funding doesn’t match demand because the demand is so significant.”

“The difference in funding between [financial years 20]25-26 and 26-27 … can be fully accounted for,” Arnost was told, with a planned fall in taskforce related funding from $44.8 million to $22.3 million the largest portion.

Federal agreement funding of $14.5 million was said to have been accounted for in the budget last year, but covered the years ahead. Some 2021-23 National Partnership Agreement programs were also not renewed by the Commonwealth.

Camm confirmed to this masthead the Domestic and Family Violence Reform Advisory Panel that replaced the supervisor role continues to meet, but has refused to provide more information about its work and if it would be made public.

Despite last year saying she would consider “appropriate reporting models” as part of the development of the recent high-level 10-year domestic and family violence strategy, Camm’s May document contained little such detail.

Camm’s office was approached for a response to McMurdo’s statement.

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