Members of the federal government’s own expert advisory panel on sexual violence have called for “urgent” independent national oversight of police after new revelations about Queensland police failures before the killing of the First Nations woman Kardell Lomas.
Guardian Australia’s Broken trust investigation revealed that Lomas, a 31-year-old Kamilaroi and Mununjali woman, had sought help from police and other agencies in the months before she was killed.
Her family has applied for an inquest to examine, among other things, failures by police to help Lomas, protect her from her dangerous partner, or investigate evidence of domestic violence.
A statement signed by 16 of the 20 members of the expert panel selected to advise the federal government about sexual violence law reform has called on the attorney general, Michelle Rowland, to take “urgent, decisive action” in relation to the case.
They said the case highlighted issues they had raised throughout the Australian Law Reform Commission’s inquiry into justice responses to sexual violence but that the inquiry’s recommendations had not gone far enough.
“Expert advisory group members repeatedly warned of the chronic failure of police to investigate violence,” the statement says.
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“We brought forward lived experience, organisational data, and decades of frontline insight. We made clear that victim-survivors, especially those already marginalised, cannot rely on a system that routinely dismisses or delays their pleas for help.”
The inquiry report, they said, “does not address these issues to the extent that is urgently required”.
“For many victim-survivors, including First Nations women, this reflects a broad systemic pattern in which very serious concerns about egregious policing responses or failures to respond are not adequately confronted.
“Women continue to pay the price, sometimes with their lives, for this ongoing pattern of dismissal, delay and inadequate responses that leave them unprotected in critical moments.
“This moment requires national leadership.”
The statement called for an inquest into Lomas’s death. Her family has made an application for this and the Queensland attorney general, Deb Frecklington, is considering it.
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It also called for “immediate national action to establish truly independent oversight of police responses to violence in every state and territory”.
“Without meaningful accountability, preventable deaths will continue.”
In Queensland, a 2022 inquiry recommended the establishment of a civilian-led integrity unit to handle complaints about police. The implementation of that recommendation has stalled and its future is unclear.
The vast majority of complaints about police are investigated by other police.
In one case investigated as part of the Broken trust series, a whistleblower complained to the Crime and Corruption Commission about police failing to properly investigate the police response before the murder of Hannah Clarke and her children. The CCC sought to refer the complaint back the police.
Indigenous Australians can call 13YARN on 13 92 76 for information and crisis support. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org
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