Despite repeated reviews and heavy scrutiny, a "critical" lack of information sharing between Queensland's domestic violence response organisations is leaving victims at greater risk, a new report has found.
The Queensland Audit Office (QAO) report criticised the state's "mostly reactive response" to domestic and family violence (DVF) and said there was little monitoring of offenders and a lack of rehabilitation programs.
The Corrective Services Department couldn't confirm to the QAO how many DFV perpetrators were in prisons or were under supervision since 2015.
The QAO also said information wasn't routinely shared between organisations and that responders lacked training, were missing details and were not adequately assessing risk.
It also said that despite a stark increase in the amount of young people as DFV victims, witnesses or perpetrators, there was a lack of services tailored to them.
The report made 21 recommendations aimed at strengthening prevention, education, and early intervention services.
Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman said the government welcomed the findings and accepted all of the recommendations.
"We haven't waited for the Auditor-General's report, we've already begun implementing the biggest systems reform to domestic and family violence that we've seen in Queensland, particularly with our $363m investment," she said.
"Clearly we know we have much more work to do.
"We're only beginning to overhaul our Respectful Relationships curriculum so that young people understand what respect is in a relationship, red flags … and as a community we're only beginning to understand coercive control, and certainly our systems are not set up to properly respond to that pattern of abuse over time, but we're changing that.
Asked about concerns over information-sharing, she said it was a "huge task" to change the way agencies in their silos do their work.
No common database
The QAO focused heavily on the lack of information sharing between DFV responders and service providers – saying data was documented on different systems between departments.
"This prevents entities from quickly sharing concerns about risks to a victim or family," the report said.
"In 2018–19 the Death Review and Advisory Board reported a lack of critical information sharing contributed to the death of a child," the report said.
"Despite all of this and the fact that every review has recommended more information-sharing and more collaborative efforts, the various government and non-government entities that deal with domestic violence are still not working together as much as they need to."
The QAO said the lack of information sharing also complicated the police's job of responding to incidents.
Lack of monitoring and a system under pressure
The QAO said despite funding 134 rehabilitation programs across the state, the government did not collect data on attendance rates or completion rates for perpetrators.
"It also does not know how many perpetrators reoffend after those rehabilitation efforts," the report said.
The report said that since the introduction of "choking, suffocation, or strangulation in a domestic setting" is now a specific offence in the criminal code – no entity has measured how effective it had been in preventing subsequent violence.
It also highlighted that there were no permanent programs for rehabilitating DFV offenders in Queensland prisons.
The report revealed that Police are responding to 48 per cent more cases than six years ago – while the amount of young people being monitored for DFV offences has increased by 57 per cent.
The QAO said the Queensland government recognised the enormity of the issue and was taking steps to deal with it, but more training, more information-sharing, and more monitoring of efforts was required.
The report's recommendations included ensuring police properly code DFV calls according to risk, enhancing court support for victims applying for DVOs and more training for DFV responders, including police.
It also recommended case management be coordinated between all DFV responders and services and better monitoring of DFV offenders in prisons.
In a written response to the report, Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said QPS would consider the recommendations in the context of the Inquiry into QPS responses to domestic and family violence – which was currently underway.
She said the QPS agreed or agreed in principle to the application recommendations.
