When the Queensland minister, Amanda Camm, announced her hand-picked domestic violence working group, her statement said the state government would “give victims a voice”.
About a year later, Camm’s chief of staff sent an email to one of the members of the working group who has lived experience of domestic violence. The woman was dissatisfied with the process, and had been seeking a private meeting with the minister for the prevention of domestic and family violence to raise her concerns.
That woman was told she was no longer welcome to phone the minister’s offices. If she called again, the office would hang up.
It wasn’t the only time a member of the working group felt silenced.
As Guardian Australia revealed last month, the government buried the group’s summary report and recommendations after its members were heavily critical of police responses and called for significant reforms.
Three of the women involved in the process have told Guardian Australia, on condition of anonymity, that they felt unable to publicly raise concerns about the “token” and “waste-of-time” consultations.
They say that this is because they were made to sign confidentiality agreements when joining.
Special ‘communication protocol’
During estimates hearings last week, the head of Camm’s families department, Belinda Drew, denied that working group members were made to sign “NDAs”.
But information given to group members, seen by Guardian Australia, confirms they were required to sign “confidentiality agreements” as the group would deal with sensitive and personal information.
One woman, Cindy*, says that after repeatedly raising concerns that some issues were not being taken seriously, Camm promised to meet her privately to discuss them. Cindy and other working group members say this promise was made in front of the group.
Cindy did later meet with two ministerial staff, but Camm did not attend.
She says that when she complained to Camm’s advisers that the minister had promised her a personal meeting, one of them raised the fact she had “signed an NDA” and couldn’t tell anyone or take it further.
When Cindy wrote to Camm afterwards to again request a meeting, Camm’s chief of staff, Anna Hilton, sent an email saying the office was implementing a special “communication protocol” for Cindy.
“If you contact by telephone, you will be reminded of this communication protocol and the call will be terminated,” Hilton wrote.
“Unfortunately your conduct during these meetings is not conducive to an ongoing dialogue, which should be respectful on all sides.”
Cindy denies any conduct that was inappropriate, but says she did grow increasingly frustrated at what she saw was a “sham” process, where the government wanted to be seen as listening to victims but not act on their concerns.
“Camm wasn’t there during most of the sessions,” Cindy said.
“We felt we were literally there to tick a box so Amanda could say ‘we had a conference with DV survivors’.”
On the email she received, Cindy said: “You’re making victims seem like they’re the problem. You’re no different to the abuser. I’ve never read an email like that before.”
Another member of the victim-survivor working group, Fiona*, says she initially felt privileged to be part of the process. “The first meeting sounded promising.”
“From then on it was very clear when Camm attended that we weren’t going to achieve anything.
“Camm clearly wasn’t interested … we were nothing more than a token, tick-the-box exercise. It became obvious that she had her own political agenda and our lived experience didn’t fall in line with that.”
‘Everyone expected it would be published’
As revealed by Guardian Australia, the buried summary report from the group focused heavily on issues with inconsistent and problematic police responses and included recommendations for independent oversight of police.
Camm said last month that victim-survivors who participated in the working group had done so “under the explicit understanding” the report would not be published.
She said that Labor MPs who cited the summary report leaked to the Guardian – which contained no sensitive or personal information – had “betrayed the wishes of those women”.
Three members of the working group each say they believe the summary report was written for “broader distribution”, as opposed to a more comprehensive report that included sensitive information.
“Everyone expected it would be published,” says one member, Anna*.
But she said it became clear that the recommendations differed from the government’s agenda, especially with regard to ongoing issues with police responses.
“We put them in a situation where they said they wanted things to be shaped by victims, but then they didn’t like what we told them.
“So it seems that rather than be called out on not listening to victims, they just tried to shut everything down.”
Asked for comment, Camm’s office sent a response that did not address several questions and repeated her earlier statement.
“Some of the victims who had lived through extremely traumatic experiences only participated in our workshops under the explicit understanding the report would not be broadly published,” Camm said.
• In Australia, domestic and family violence counselling is available from Full Stop Australia on 1800 385 578. In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women’s Aid. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org.
