Domestic violence is becoming more of a serious concern due to an increase in serious violent incidents occurring around Queensland. The Southport Court House in the Gold Coast opened its own specialised domestic violence court room in 2015 with two domestic violence Magistrates who hear matters surrounding domestic violence laws only.

In Queensland, female victims of domestic violence are provided a number of support services from providers such as Centacare, Domestic Violence Prevention Centre, DVConnect, Domestic Violence Hotlines and many other small scale operations. Statistics show that these services are relied upon more and more each year. For example, DVConnect had an increase of 700 motel nights in 2016 provided to women needing to leave the family home. In contrast, although there are some services for men who are the victims, availability to men is significantly reduced (in particular, funding wise), and instead, support focusses on rehabilitating men from violent behaviour and ensuring they are part of an intervention program.

Observations from our firm in particular have shocked a number of our lawyers to see that there is a support / victims room at the Southport Magistrates Court, only provided to women with a separate entrance to the court room. With the importance of this room identified, it can be argued that the Southport Magistrates Court should provide an equal service to men. We flag this as an issue of particular concern when our office represents men as the victim/aggrieved in many of our matters.  To emphasise this point, according to a study by the ABS Personal Safety Survey by Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety approximately 694,100 men reported experiencing at least one incident of violence by a female partner since the age of 15. Although the women’s statistics are approximately four times higher, it should not discount that the amount of men experiencing domestic violence is also extremely large and of serious concern.