DFV Free Matters to ME! Tackling Domestic & Family Violence as a Community

DFV Free Matters to ME! Tackling Domestic & Family Violence as a Community 

In this powerful episode of Stronger Together, Tanya O'Shea, Managing Director of IMPACT Community Services, engages in a heartfelt conversation with Bundaberg Patrol Group Inspector Grant Marcus. They delve into the alarming rise of domestic and family violence (DFV) within the community and discuss the collaborative efforts required to address this critical issue. 

Episode Highlights: 

• The significant increase in reported DFV cases and contributing factors
• The importance of community support and collaboration in tackling DFV
• Insights into the Queensland Police Service's specialised units and ongoing training
• Practical steps for individuals and organisations to help make a difference
• The DFV Free Bundaberg initiative and the community's role in creating a safer environment

Join us as we explore the challenges and solutions in the fight against domestic and family violence. Learn how you can contribute to building a DFV-free community and why DFV Free Matters to ME!

Thank you for listening to this episode of "Stronger Together" We hope you enjoyed the conversation and gained valuable insights.

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Transcript

Welcome to Stronger Together, a powerful podcast series hosted by IMPACT Community Services.

I'm Tanya O'Shea, managing director of IMPACT, and I have the pleasure of front lining this little passion project of ours. In the podcast, we dig into some of the many social problems that people are facing within our communities and we chat with guests willing to have the hard conversations.

We want you to be kept informed and updated on the latest information. Yet are also aware that some of the topics address

sensitive issues. We acknowledge that this could be triggering or distressing for some listeners, and we encourage you to pause the episode and seek immediate support. Information on where to seek help will be provided at the end of each episode.

Before we begin. Together,
We move towards an inclusive future by acknowledging the unceded lands of the Butchulla,. Gureng Gureng, Wakka Wakka, Kabi Kabi, Wulli Wulli, Taribelang, Gurang and Byali peoples.

Now let's dive into this episode of Stronger Together.

Hi, I am Tanya O'Shea and welcome to this episode of Stronger Together. As you know, we tackle a range of different subjects. Last time we talked about education and the new Impact Community Academy that was starting, and principal Jenna. And that was exciting. We're coming to opening the doors of the academy very soon.

So we'll be looking forward perhaps to talking to Principal Jenna again sometime  soon.

There are topics, however that are a little more sobering within the community, and it is important as we're coming into domestic and family violence prevention month that we have some of these serious conversations,

and start to really appreciate that it's not individuals that are facing some of these challenges within our community. It's a whole of community that are facing these challenges together. So that's where we truly believe in this podcast around stronger together, that there is power in coming together as a community and really starting to talk to some of these issues and really trying to tackle them as a powerful community.

So today I am lucky enough to be joined by Bundaberg Patrol Group Inspector grant Lee Marcus. Now, we're not going to be all I don't know, official here. So he is been kind enough to say, look, just call me Grant for the purpose of today. So Grant, welcome along. I really do appreciate your time. No worries.

Thank you very much Tanya. It is a, it's a bit of a sad topic to be talking about, but a really important one. So I actually do appreciate the opportunity to come and talk to you. So you are one of our role models within the community around starting this conversation, really bringing the community together.

So we're gonna talk about that a little bit later in the program today. What I would like to start with though, is. You have risen within the ranks. Now as chief inspector, when you started back in the police force what made you decide to go into police work? Yeah, so I've been doing this now for 35 years.

Wow. Actually coming up to 36 years in June. So I joined the, at the academy when I was a very sprightly 21 years old. And I was one of those kids who always wanted to be a police officer. So when you saw someone playing with that little police car, little car in the playground, that was me.

And, you know, making the siren noises. And it was just something that was just built in my DNA that I just wanted to be a police officer. And I certainly pursued that. Look, I did take a little deviation at one stage and thought about becoming a teacher. Like my mum. But I realised that policing was certainly my calling and I have not regretted that one bit.

I thoroughly enjoy being a police officer. I've got a few years left before I retire, and my intention is to certainly finish off retiring as a police officer. Like I said, day to day, I really do enjoy what I do. Yeah. Wow. So you've certainly, you've had a long career in policing and I'm sure you've seen a lot and you would've travelled around a lot.

Now what I know though, is this isn't your first time in Bundaberg, in serving in Bundaberg. You came through the doors of the Bundaberg police station back in 1997, as you say, is this. Sprightly Senior Constable back then. Now, I think though if we reflect IMPACT 1997 today, I know in the work that we do here at IMPACT, things are markedly different when we are thinking about some of the complex challenges that people face.

When you think about back to 1997, what were you seeing, you know, working as that senior constable in the Bundaberg area? What kinds of things were you seeing in the community? So as a frontline police officer, particularly in a community such as Bundaberg and its surroundings we had.

All sorts of different roles that we undertook and all sorts of different jobs. You know, we, today we're talking about domestic and family violence and yes, that did occur back then, but not like the level that we're seeing at the moment. And we'll talk about that later, I'm sure. Back then, 1997 when I came to Bundaberg, you know, we were attending to disturbances in the streets.

We were tending to houses and businesses that were being broken into. We were picking up drink drivers and. You know, people who had been assaulted or people down the street who drunk too much and needed to be sobered up. They're the sorts of people that we were dealing with. You know, drug related problems and alcohol related problems was certainly at the for as it is now.

And that was our every day. But, you know, we often used to be able to sit back and have a break. From those jobs and attend to the paperwork that has to be done. Unfortunately, there is a lot of paperwork in policing. It's not just go out in cars and put the siren on and chase people and come back again.

There is still a lot of paperwork, but we used to have a decent break between that I. And we'd often get together as police officers sit down and, you know, we could have our own little social interactions and things like that. And it wasn't unco uncommon that when we did our night work, so we'd do a week of night work and it wouldn't be uncommon at the end of the night work as a team to get together and have a nice meal together at the end of the night work.

And then we'd go off for a few days to recover and things like that. That was back then. But today it's vastly different. It's very different. It's very busy. They the crews out there I can't, I feel sorry for them. They just go from job to job. And when they're back, they're doing more administrative duties and things like that.

So the world has become busier. The population here has increased. We do have more police officers here than we had back in 1997, which is terrific. But they're very busy very busy, and they're dealing with a lot more violence than we used to see back then. A lot more drug related violence than what was present back then.

A lot of the violence we were dealing with was alcohol related with some drug related. But now it's very much drug related violence as well. Yeah. So we are hearing the numbers of police officers needed throughout the State. The state we're under resourced. That's what the media is telling us.

I Is that what, so we're seeing more police officers here in Bundaberg, which you would expect, but is there still a need? For more people to join the service. There, there is, and we are crying out for people to join the service. This is as nationwide, worldwide issue. You know, the emergency services, the police, the ambulance, the fire brigade, even the military are going through similar issues around trying to recruit people.

It's a highly rewarding job. That's what I'll say to people. A very rewarding job. By the same token, it's a very demanding and very challenging job. And for some people, that's not what they're after. But what we say to people is, look, if you want to challenge, if you want to find something that really gives you a lot of satisfaction because you've done some things magnificent for the community, then policing certainly is the thing to go to.

It's not easy by any means, and there's a lot of demands on our people, but it's highly rewarding. It really is. And there's career progression and you your testament to that, that if people would like to progress throughout their career, there are opportunities to grow and learn and travel see different parts of the country.

Absolutely. And you know, I know we're not on a recruiting sort of program here at the moment, but it is. And there are very, there are large number of locations throughout Queensland that police officers can be based at. And there is a massive variety of roles that they can undertake. It's not just being on the road.

There are. So many different things with dog squad and with water police, with our stock squad, our mounted police, we've got detectives playing close officers, you know, we've got radio technicians, our forensic experts, so many police officers who work within schools and things like that. So there's a vast array of.

Jobs within the career of a police officer. Yeah. Great. Look, we do employment here, so I think it's important to give it a plug when you get the opportunity. Absolutely. Yeah. And look at the moment, what I can say is that for Bundaberg, for the Bundaberg area all our current positions are full.

Which is good to know. Fabulous. So it is good to know, and we have got a lot more recruits that are coming out of the police academy throughout the remainder of this year, which is gonna further boost our numbers to give us a better ability to manage those demands that we have. No.

Great. Thank you. So if we think 1997 you were seeing violence in the street break-ins, you know, within businesses today, and if we are talking about domestic and family violence specifically, what changes have you seen in that space in relation to what our frontline police service is responding to?

And look, that's an easy question. We are seeing a massive increase in the level of reported domestic and family violence. The level that was reported back in say 1997 when I was here was very low. And interestingly, when I first joined the police service, which was in 1989, there was no such thing as domestic and family violence legislation.

It didn't exist. So there was no such job on our system for domestic violence, you know, afford to now. We are seeing a massive increase, and this isn't just something that's happening in Bundaberg. This is something that happens in, is happening in Queensland and it's happening throughout the whole of Australia.

It's not unusual to see on the TV that we're looking at a national crisis around this. The level of domestic and family violence being recorded in our community is at a crisis level. I would have to agree with that. You know, let's look back. Three to four years ago where we saw a 20% increase in the level of reported domestic and family violence in the Bundaberg region.

That was a large increase for us. And then the year, the following year after that, we were looking at a 22.5% gain on top of that. So back then, so that was around 2023 Domestic and family violence then became our number one call for service. And what I mean by that is that was the most number of calls for service that we were receiving above any other job.

For the first time in our record here in the Bundaberg region, it became our number one call for service. And that was really sad. So that went up by 22.5% to get to that level. The following year we went up by another 36% on top of that. That was just a massive increase. So not only now is it our number one call for service, but it's now number one call for service by a huge margin.

Pretty much every second job that our police officers are going to here in the Bundaberg region has some sort of domestic and family violence relationship in it. And that's really sad for our community. That should not be happening. And it is really testing our ability to meet those calls for service.

People probably don't understand that when a police officer goes to a domestic and family violence situation, a DV situation, it's not something that we can solve very quickly. It's not like a noise complaint where someone says The next door neighbour's stereo is up too loud. Can you go and turn that down?

That can take 10 or 15 minutes for us to do. Domestic and family violence can take half a shift. So we're looking three, four hours for an officer to go and deal with a domestic and family violence incident. If there are follow up investigations after that, we're talking weeks and sometimes months for that to matter, to be eventually finalised and things like that.

So when you start seeing the numbers of those types of DV incidents occurring, and then you add on the level of hours that it takes for a police, for police to deal with those things, you start to imagine how much how much impact that is having on our ability. To do other policing roles as well within the community.

So we don't just do domestic and family violence as people know, you know, we're here about stopping, crying. Making our community safe about making our roads safer and things like that. We want businesses to be able to operate without people going breaking into them or stealing things off their shelves.

We want people to be able to live at home and not be in fear of their houses being broken into, or their cars being stolen and things like that. That's our role. It makes it very challenging for us when a lot of the time we are at domestic and family violence matters and trying to deal with that.

And there's the emotional strain, and I can talk about that later, but there's a massive emotional strain on everybody involved. Particularly the people who are involved in it directly, but also the local community, the family, the friends, the work colleagues, and then our own police officers who were trying to deal with that day in, day out, shift after shift, week after week, I.

Month after month. It just, yeah, it's, it takes a large toll on the community. So you mentioned back in 1997 that the domestic and family violence it existed. We knew it was in communities and today those stats just blow my mind. They it's concerning the level that we are getting to and the more that we are seeing that in communities.

Why do you think those stats have risen so significantly in the last three? Four years. What's that about? I think it's a combination of a few things. And this is my thinking, so obviously our population is increasing. Queensland is seen, has, you know, has the largest you know, migration of people to the state from other states and internationally.

So our population in the state is increasing that more people, more than likely you're going to see increases in reported domestic and family violence. I think. Big issue here is that people are more comfortable with reporting. Domestic and family violence. You know, when I first joined the job, like I said, there was no such thing as domestic violence, job and policing.

It was something that happened behind closed doors. It was something that neighbours didn't get involved in. It was a personal, private thing, and it was none of their business. Today, thankfully, people are turning around and saying, you know what? That's wrong. That can't happen in a household or out in the street and those sorts of things.

We have to put a stop to that. We have to report that. And people who are victim survivors, we call them, I. Of domestic and family violence are calling out and saying, you know what I need to report this because I can't continue like this. So we are seeing naturally levels of domestic and family violence being reported.

We also are seeing a lot more support services out there, agencies who support victims and perpetrators as well, and they are assisting. Our members of the community to make reports. And to report that to the police report it through the courts and things like that. I think there's a combination, but I also genuinely feel that we are also seeing a natural increase in the level of domestic and family violence that's occurring in our communities.

And that could also be related to the level of cost of living crisis that we're having. The pressures and stresses that's putting on people, increases in alcohol consumption. Certainly increases in drug illicit drugs. And what that effect is having on people. Methyl amphetamines really affects the minds of people and how they react and behave to other people.

And it's quite unpredictable. So we're seeing those experiences. So you combine all of those together. You combine the cost of living stresses, you combine increase in population, the comfort of people to report it, and the increases in drug and alcohol use. All of those combined, in my opinion, is what's leading to the situation that we're seeing at the moment.

You, you mentioned earlier too, when you first joined the service, there was no such thing as domestic and family violence. Roles training, you know, back then, now there's been shifts in, you know, legislation and training. Tell me more about how that has evolved and what you've seen over your time in relation to the training and what's now required of people working in the police service when it comes to domestic and family violence.

Certainly. So even the legislation on its own has evolved over time. So when it first came out, it only involved. Either current or previous couples who were together or had a child together and things like that. It was for couples only. It was, you know, your domestic related relationships. These days it involves same sex relationships.

It involves you know, adults and children as well. And it involves relatives, uncles, aunts, cousins. It ex, it's expanded to increase a large group of family members because, the situation is such that the community have said, look, we need to do something about this, and it needs to evolve to meet our community needs.

So as more and more is being reported you know, politicians and that have changed the rules to evolve and change the laws to evolve, to meet community needs, which is exactly what their role is and is what we want to see. You know, it wasn't just you know, the husband and wife type scenario that we, you know, used to do.

Today, we deal with a lot more. Changes in that respect. So it's not just husband and wife, it's brothers and sisters, it's uncles and aunts, it's grandparents, elder abusers now come into that sort of thing. So it has expanded to include a larger number of people and that means that our role is even larger.

You talk about also other things like we're seeing a significant change in the level of physical violence that we've not seen before. It's alarming for me to read the number of police reports that come across my desk where I'm seeing strangulation. Being involved in domestic and family violence, that is a really concerning trigger for really serious violence where we're starting to see, you know, potentials for homicide and things like that when you start seeing strangulation.

So to see those statistics starting to rise, that's really concerning also. So there's actual roles now isn't there within the service that specialise in domestic. Domestic and family violence. So there's been training provided to officers more broadly, but then there's specialised roles. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Certainly. So yeah, definitely. It's like when I first joined the job and even in, back in 1997, there was very little domestic and family violence related training. These days we go away and we do a full week. Domestic and family violence training to look at it all because it is such a complex issue and the legislation and training legislation is changing quite rapidly.

You know, next month we see coercive control legislation come into play within Queensland for the. First time related to domestic and family violence. So further training is required so that we are skilled and we have the knowledge to be able to investigate those. And they won't be easy.

They're not an easy sort of a crime to be able to prove, but we have to have the skills to do that. So we'll get training in that. You are right. We have our own, what we call a vulnerable persons unit here in Bundaberg. When I first started here in 1997, that never existed. It was just up to our, you know, frontline uniform officers and our detectives to go out and investigate domestic and family violence.

I. Now we have these specialist units and they are trained in those areas. They go away and they do ongoing courses and they work very closely with different agencies and things like that to make sure that they're best placed to support the community and address domestic and family violence.

We now have our own command. Within the Queensland Police Service that looks at domestic and family violence. We never used to have that five years ago, but we do now, which is amazing. Wow. Yes. You know, obviously because of the demand on our organisation, we have to evolve to meet those changes in demand and that's what we are doing as an organisation.

Our offices are constantly being updated and skilled and trained as the laws and procedures and things like that change as well. Yeah, so ideally it'd be lovely to think we live in a world that, you know, whoever's listening to this, they wouldn't be affected in some way by domestic and family bi violence.

And part of having this conversation is to provide people with some confidence that if they needed to report, if they. I don't know. I just wanted to disclose to someone within the service that they need some help. That they could be confident that they would be heard. They would, it would, there would be some response provided.

So my hope is that if there's anyone listening to this who may be affected by domestic and family violence, that they feel like there is someone within the Queensland Police Service that could support them. So part of giving them that confidence, I guess. At times it's about demystifying the process. So in hearing that, there is a specialised unit, so the vulnerable persons unit that's set up, they've got specialised skills.

If a person was to make a call and say, I need help, what is the process? What happens? Can you talk us through a little bit about what's involved so that people kind of get a feel for what to expect? Yeah, no problems at all. So often we get phone calls, you know, it could be a triple O call that comes in an emergency call.

We could have someone that just rings up that where the event has happened, say 24 hours or 48 hours earlier. They've, they feel safe enough and they feel as though they've got enough courage to ring the police and enough strength, I should say, to ring the police and to actually let us know what's happening.

Alternatively, we can have them walk into the front counter of a police station and report it that way as well. Another process is sometimes they can go through some of the support services or Ring DV Connect or the 800 helpline. Once it becomes, comes to our attention, we will go and investigate it.

Now what people need to understand is that we are required under legislation that we must investigate domestic and family violence. So the word is must not should. It's must investigate it. So once domestic and family violence is reported to us, we must investigate it. It doesn't always mean that we will take action, depends on what's happened.

But we still. Have to go and investigate and see what's going on there. We have we have now introduced in the last few years what's called a safe room. So if a person comes or contacts us, we will take them into our safe room. What it is really, it's a nice comfortable room that's quiet.

It's away from other police. It's away from the public where we can sit down with the person and we can talk to them in an uncomfortable environment where they feel comfortable and safe and they can tell us what's going on. So we offer them that, or alternatively. They may wish to still do that at their own home or at their workplace, or at another location where they feel quite safe.

So we'll talk to them and we'll ask them and get their version of what's happened. We'll look to see if there's any evidence of any, could be that the, some of the property's been damaged in the house, things have been thrown around. You know, it could be that the person's been injured in some way and they've got.

Bruises or other forms of injuries that we need to take note of. So it might be that we end up sending our since crime staff to go around and take photographs of those sorts of things. Or we may even ask the person, look, you've got injuries. Can you go and see the doctor and get those injuries noted so that we've got some evidence of that down the track if we need to.

So we'll talk to the person, we'll look to see if there's any witnesses and things like that, if there are kids involved. We look to see what we can do to support those children and to try and do our best to make sure they're not further exposed to. To this sort of trauma or if they have been exposed, what we can do to support them to get over that trauma, along with the victims as well.

So we make sure that they're looked after and we'll refer them onto other agencies. We'll ask them and say, look, would you be like to be referred to another agency who can support you? And we do that on a very regular basis. We'll refer them, we'll refer children, refer other people who have witnessed it, who might be traumatised to make sure that they get the support that they need.

We'll sit down with the victim and the witnesses and we'll get a fairly extensive statement off them, and that takes a fair bit of time. So we sit down with them and ask them what's happened. And we get that down in writing 'cause we need the evidence. And based on that, we'll then look at taking out a domestic violence order.

Now, that's one avenue we can take if we think that it's such that we need to take action there. And then we can take out what's called a police protection notice or a PPN as we call it, quite simply. So we can say, you know what, we need to put an order in straight away, a temporary order of some description straight away.

So we can put a police protection notice in place. And this system to immediately say, right, these are the conditions. You're not to commit domestic family violence against these people, and we'll nominate them. It could be righto. You are not to go within a hundred meters of them, or you're not to contact them.

We can even put in what we call ouster conditions, where we might say to the perpetrator, and we call him the respondent in our legislation, but the perpetrator will call him you know what, you shouldn't be here. We're gonna we're actually gonna put in a condition that you must vacate the premises.

We'll stay there while they vacate the premises. Sometimes we'll assist them in trying to find somewhere for them to go. It'll be emergency accommodation or with a friend or relative or something like that. So they've got somewhere to go and we'll wait until they've gone. They'll be served with a copy of the protection notice as well as the ouster conditions and all.

And so we'll be the victim of the aggrieved, as we call them in legislation. And that's to make sure that the people are protected. So usually we do that in the first instance. If we think there's enough there, we will provide an issue, a police protection notice, we'll then do up a application for a proper domestic violence order.

And that will then go before the court. Now the court may ask for the victim and the perpetrator to appear in court. They'll be served with documents and they'll appear before the court and the courts may decide what to do or they will decide what to do with that application that we have in front of them, and they can apply for up to five years for that application to be in place.

Initially, it only ever used to be two years. But now they've extended it, which is really good. And there can be conditions placed in those orders similar to what we had in the police protection order. And that's once again around contacting people, going within certain distances. It could be around having access to children and things like that because it can become quite complex when there's kids involved.

That's once the order's in place. From there we can you know, we basically try to make sure it doesn't happen again. And that's our aim is to try and prevent from domestic and family violence from reoccurring. And to make people feel safe in homes. That's the ultimate aim. A lot of the times when we turn up, that's basically what they want out of it all, is that, look, I just want to be able to live in my house in a calm and safe way, and I just want us to be able to love one another and live together.

And that's not a hard thing to want. That's what, you know, most people want in their relationship. But sometimes it doesn't always work out that way. And the police protection notice and the domestic and family violence orders are there. As a mechanism to try and ensure that does occur.

So yeah, that, that's one avenue and that's what we'll do. We'll sit down with the person, we'll try and support them in every way. We can identify what's the best protection that person needs, given their circumstances, and to put that in place. And to try our best to make sure that the domestic and family violence does not reoccur.

That's the ultimate aim. Yeah, absolutely. So the, so there was a few key things for me. So the police must take action if there is a domestic and fi family. Violence. Must investigate. Must investigate, sorry. Must investigate the listening. Supporting that's available. I also heard you say that in some instances it could be that the perpetrator may be asked to leave the premise because that's sometimes what we are dealing with is it's the actual victim survivor who's having to flee at.

You know, so they're having to uproot themselves or their family and actually leave that situation. So I heard that as well. I also heard how complex it is because what we also know is sometimes there's not physical injury that is evident that we can investigate. So I, you know, I'm hearing you that some of that is incredibly complex to try and navigate through, but I think there's certainly some.

There's hope there. You know, there's certainly hope that change is possible and it is about making that first point of contact, whether that's with the police, whether that's with a support service within the community that you feel comfortable with, but it is about speaking out. 'cause there is supports that can be wrapped around, the complexity, I guess as, and I'm just thinking from a bystanders perspective, whether that's a neighbour, a family member, a friend, that they kind of feel like there's something going on, but they're not quite sure. And. In that situation, some people just think, well, someone else will deal with that, report that problem that I kind of want to stay out of it 'cause I don't want to be involved.

So what would be your advice to people who are kind of concerned, worried. They've got an inkling that there's something going on, but they kind of just don't want to get involved. What advice do you have for bystanders or potential bystanders? The first thing I'll say is if they hear an incident that is occurring and they're quite worried for the people that are it could be in a vehicle, it could be in a house, or it could be in a workplace, or it could simply just be on the footpath.

You know, if they are worried about that and think that somebody is at risk. You know, to ring police if they think it's an emergency ring, triple zero in those instances to let us know. We'll go and investigate it. We'll look at those instances and try and deal with them then and there. However, you know, if it's passed and it might be the next day or the day after and they're concerned, if they feel comfortable, go and talk to that person and just, you know, just go and say, look, how are you going?

How are you feeling? Are things okay? Don't immediately try and extract information about, you know, did he or she hit you or anything like that. Be very gentle about that. And don't be judgmental about the person either. Let them you know, be able to speak. It might be that they're not comfortable to talk to you about it.

You know, your listeners might be surprised to hear that people aren't always comfortable to talk to police about what's going on, so they may not disclose to us what's going on, even though we've been contacted by a neighbour or a friend or someone like that. So they may not want to at that moment in time.

That's okay. It's about just saying, Hey look, I'm here to support you. I'm here as a voice. I can talk to you. Look, here's some other numbers that you can call or others agencies that you can speak to who can provide you with support. There's plenty of those in the community that do exist, and we have a 24 hour hotline that people can ring.

1 808, 1 8, double one. So they can ring that number if they want to there. And then that's. That's no problems whatsoever. So there are lots of support services out there. It's about not criticising or being critical of the person. It's about trying to, you know, be supportive and encourage them to speak out about what's going on.

If they're not comfortable talking to you, well maybe they might be comfortable talking to somebody else. It could be the police, it could be a support service to speak to them. And also, like I said, it may not be then and there. It could be later on down the track, and that's okay. Different people will feel more comfortable at different times, and that's just people being human.

And also understanding that the, each of those situations are very unique. There could be children involved, there could be the person might feel that they'll be homeless. They might feel that they won't be able to see their kids. They might lose their job. And or they won't have access to money or other sorts of things that they need.

They could be very worried about that or they might feel that there could be retaliation for reporting these sorts of things. So if they do have those discussions, make sure they're done in private when there's no one around. So the person feels a lot more comfortable to be able to speak about it.

It's probably one of those critical things. Yeah, that's great advice. Thank you for sharing that. Because it is it's complex and I think that not pushing. And coming from a, of a place of the right intention to that you're not kind of just wanting to be nosy and find out the gossip. It is coming from a really a place of caring, you know, for that other person who, whomever they may be, I.

You have been leading the charge, I did say earlier around a local community effort in getting a voice together around domestic and family violence and a dear fee free community. I. And I love how you've talked throughout this conversation around it's not just about what we are doing as a police service.

It's about wrapping whole of community supports and bringing them together. Now, this domestic and family violence prevention month, I. Being held in May. The theme is take positive action today to build a safer Queensland, and that again is something that you have said a few times throughout this conversation is, for us, it's about keeping our communities safe.

Tell us a little bit more about the vision for DFV free. Bundaberg and the community working group that you, along with other providers have pulled together in the Bundaberg community? Yeah, certainly. And look, this is something I think that the Bundaberg community should be very proud of as well. Back in February last year myself and representatives from Eden Place, who we worked with very closely presented to a number of community leaders around 40 about the issues that we were experiencing, about the massive increase in the level of domestic and family violence that we were trying to deal with on a day-to-day basis.

And the fact that it was you know, it was unsustainable. We just could not keep at that level. They heard us, we talked about the stats that I spoke about before and they heard us, and out of that, this community working group was developed. And really this is what it's about. It's about members of the community who are, you know, donating their own time to come together on a monthly basis, to come up with mechanisms and ways by which the community can work together to start creating a community that's free of domestic and family violence.

I mean, ultimately that's what everybody wants to have is a safe community. Where there is no domestic and family violence occurring. It's a, you know, it's a big call to create that. But we've got a, yes. It's very bold. It, I have to say it's very bold. Yeah. You know, it's ambitious. I, it's, but isn't that something that we want to see where people can go, you know what, I'm free of domestic and family violence and so is my community, how good's that, so it's about the community members coming together and collectively deciding what they think is best for the community of Bundaberg region, not the community of somewhere else in Queensland.

It's about what works and what's best for the community here. These are local members coming together about that. And the slogan that they come up with the logo, they come up with the DFV free matters to me, and that's what we want everybody to start talk about is that it is important that it matters to them to create a domestic and family violence free community here, in the Bundaberg region.

And that's what we want to see. So at the moment it's, you know, it's going quite well. We are, we're currently in the process of working with businesses to talk to businesses how they can support and how as a business they can manage, you know, where they suspect that, or they know that domestic and family violence involves their staff members, what they can do in that space.

It's about working with. Sporting groups as well. What influence they can make, what positive influence they can make, particularly on our younger generation as they're coming through our community, because we know that to change and create a community that's free of domestic violence is generational.

It's not gonna happen this year. It's not gonna happen next year. It needs to be a generational change. Cancer and tobacco smoking. You know, it's something that can't happen overnight. It's gonna take a long time, but you've gotta start somewhere and work on it and it'll will evolve over time. So sporting groups can make a massive and a very positive change.

So it's about working with them to say, what can you do? They've jumped on board for the month of May, quite a few of them, which is fantastic. You'll see footballers running around with purple socks on, and you'll be wondering why. And I said to the list listeners ask why? 'cause it's about bringing awareness around domestic and family violence.

We're also working with schools and with the education because like I said, it's the younger generation who set the trend for tomorrow and beyond. So it's about working with them as well around what can happen in that space. We also developed a First Nations working committee as well, purely to look at domestic and family violence from a First Nations perspective.

So we have a hard working group of First Nations members who are very proud, who want to be able to also create. A First Nations community here in Bundaberg that's free of domestic and family violence, which is admirable as well. So they've all got their hearts in the right place. We're all working together collectively to try and do this, and we have to work collectively.

Police can't do it on their own. IMPACT can't do on it on its own. We, the politicians can't do it on their own. And other organisations who are support services simply can't do it on their own. We need to all work collectively together. We need the community to help us and really we want the community to work side by side with us as we try and, you know, cure this crisis that we've got in our community.

What We just can't continue on. Like I said, it's, you know, it's unsustainable. There's no other word to describe it, and we have to do something about it. And that has to happen now. It really does. Yeah. So you are really asking community to buy in. So the month of May, you've got something very spec special happening within the community as part of the DV free.

So tell us about that and the buy-in that you are asking from to commit. To this within the community on the 23rd of April we're holding a community leaders forum a follow on for the one we had last year. And this is about a statement that we want, a commitment statement that we would like to see from our community leaders to say that they are going to strive and commit towards having a DV free community here in the Bundaberg region.

Why? Well 'cause DV three matters to me, and this is what we want them to say. We want them to commit to that. And what we're saying to the community is we would like you to come along the journey as well. And as members of the community commit to that. Also, to create a DV free community to say, you know, to say out loud, DV, free matters to me, and let's start making a difference in our community.

There are a large number of events that are occurring throughout the month of May to raise awareness around domestic and family violence and to create an awareness around the need to prevent that from re from occurring. What I say to the community, there is a walk for awareness coming up.

There is a candlelight vigil coming up. There are numerous other activities that are occurring within the Bundaberg region and also even in the North Burnett areas. Please participate in those, go along to them. Be part of the process, say to your community, we don't want this to continue. This cannot continue DV free matters to me.

And that's why I'm here to support this process. 'cause it's so important, the flow and effects to our community. It's not just about domestic and family violence. It affects us in all other aspects. Can I just say I often say this. Domestic family violence is non-discriminatory. It affects all parts of the community, all walks of life all generations, all people with different education and employment backgrounds, rich or poor, it doesn't matter.

It's in all of those areas, which is really sad, but it doesn't discriminate and we have to collectively get together to address that. And we need the community to come on the, on, on that road with us. Yeah. See your passion. Hear your passion, hear your commitment. And it is really all parts of community coming together as you say, and committing with that same passion that you have.

And I think change is possible. I have absolutely no, no doubt change is possible. It's not gonna happen overnight. However, we've got to start somewhere. Just wanted to give a call out to Joey Ryan, who has been working really closely with. Graphic designer to do up some branding material that's going to be launched at the, on, at the 23rd of April.

April, on the 23rd of April. Yes. Super exciting. It is. It's really exciting, you know, to see what's been generated there. You know, we're working with local businesses as well to produce the products that we are looking for, and we're hoping that the community leaders will come on board with us.

Be mindful and you know, really wanting to be part of that commitment to say to the community that they want a DV free community as well, that DFV free matters to them as it does to me. Yeah. So if it's okay with you, we'll share that as part of the podcast if it's okay, as part of the Absolutely links that you can go on, check out the branding.

I think it's super cool, very powerful. You'll see more of that within our. Community. So that's very exciting. As we said before, that this is a whole of community issue, so we know that local councils are in all parts of the community, and I'd like to give a big shout out to the Bundaberg Regional Council for coming on board and recognising the importance of this issue.

So for the first time ever, we've actually got two of our elected counsellors who actually have domestic and family violence as their portfolio. That's never happened here in Bundaberg before. The Bundaberg Regional Council have become part of that community working group and are an active and strong representative on the community working group at the moment.

They've actually got someone with the council who's doing service mapping and what that's about is looking at what services we have out there. That provides support in that domestic and family violence area so that we can understand, first of all, what's available to us. And I actually suspect there's more out there than we realise.

But also, what are the gaps in our community? Because once we can identify the gaps, we can start looking at opportunities to fill those gaps and provide to our community. The services and support services they need to address these issues. So I think that's really an important thing to say.

The council have done a great job and I'd like to congratulate them for the efforts that they've put in and their commitment to this very important issue. It's not something that councils would normally get involved in, but it's, like I said, it's affecting every aspect of the community. It does not discriminate, and the councils have recognised that.

And thank you to them and to their staff for the efforts they're putting in along with all the other members of the community working group, their passionate people. Tanya, you're on the working group as well. You know, you're just as compassionate about just as passionate, I should say about this issue and trying to create a positive change for our community, which is magnificent.

Yeah, absolutely. There's some amazing people standing up to, as you say, the DFV free matters to me. It's a very powerful slogan. So thank you very much for leading the charge on this change that is, is necessary within our community. Inspector Grant Marcus, thank you to the QPS, the frontline workers who are doing the really hard yards in the community understanding as well that they're getting worn down from this.

So appreciating that, you know, there's lots of support that they need as well in the work that they do. A big thank you also to the other support services who are providing supports to families, to people within our community. They are. Providing vital work for people who are experiencing domestic and family violence in their lives.

So thank you also as listeners for joining us on this episode of Stronger Together. As Normal, we will have the resources available. We'll pop that branding for the DFV free matters to me. On along with this podcast as well. And all as always, if anything within this episode has triggered something for you, please reach out for necessary supports.

So thank you for listening and we look forward to joining you again soon. Thank you.

We understand that some topics in this podcast may have been sensitive or triggering. If today's conversation has affected you. Please consider reaching out for help. Lifeline offers 24/7 support at 13 1114 or via online chat. For those in the wide Bay Burnett Region, IMPACT Community Services is here to help. Visit Impact.org.au and click the Make a Referral button to self-refer.

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