Despite Mount Isa City having the highest rate of domestic violence in the state last year, Queensland Indigenous Family Violence Legal Service (QIFVLS) says just a handful of victims approached them for help.
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“We kind of fell in a hole, even though this area had the highest number of DV applications,” Case Manager Bino Toby said.
Breaches of domestic violence protection orders (DVOs) in the area are also twelve times higher per capita than those of the state capital.
So why are victims not getting the legal help they so desperately need?
QIFVLS (pronounced “quivels”) Chief Executive, Tamara Freeman, said the agency has had to take a good hard look at themselves.
“We weren’t seeing those figures reflected in our work here, so we started having a really good look at what we were doing and how we were engaging,” Ms Freeman said.
“It became apparent that there’s a lot of confusion around what we do.”
QIFVLS was funded through the department of Prime Minister and Cabinet as a way to reduce the amount of interactions victims have to have in the judicial system.
The funding model is based on working directly with the victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, to help them through their family law matters.
Those matters can range from DVO applications, child protection, victim’s assistance, and any related civil matters that may arise.
The other, newer, side of QIFVLS’ work is case management; working with more vulnerable victims who might have higher needs outside the scope of their legal matter.
“If we can address those needs, it improves their outcomes in their legal matter and reduces the amount of interactions with the system,” Ms Freeman said.
QIFVLS works right across the state, including the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Working in collaboration with other agencies is crucial, and something QIFVLS is increasingly working on.
“We found here that some of those networks had slipped over a bit and those relationships hadn’t been as strong as they could have been maybe five or six years ago,” Ms Freeman said.
QIFVLS started a project two years ago to look at necessary improvements, following on from the 2015 State Government’s Special Taskforce on Domestic and Family Violence in Queensland’s report, titled Not Now, Not Ever.
“We identified that we needed to work more closely with those vulnerable clients, changing our funding model to work with this particular community,” she said.
QIFVLS is holding free legal clinics from 9am to 12pm on January 30, February 27, and March 27 at their centre in Mount Isa. Call 4749 5944 to book, or just turn up.
QIFVLS is also hosting a community education program at Ngukuthati Children & Family Centre, Short Street.
Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Shannon Fentiman and Chair of the Domestic and Family Violence Implementation Council, Dame Quentin Bryce, announced that from August 2017, Mount Isa would become a regional trial site for a new and integrated service response model for domestic and family violence.
In December, Mount Isa QIFVLS held a community meeting with elders and community groups to discuss plans for implementing the new model, with a fresh focus on managing specific needs for vulnerable clients.
For more information on what QIFVLS does, see www.qifvls.com.au.
