More than five family violence incidents a day were reported on average in Maribyrnong and Hobsons Bay last year.
Reports in Hobsons Bay have more than doubled in the past five years, jumping to 1034 last year compared with 890 the previous year and 503 in 2010. The total included 578 assaults, 79 justice procedures offences (for example, intervention order breaches) and 176 sexual offences.
Hobsons Bay police inspector Richard Paterson said there had been a large increase in breaches of intervention orders, parole and bail.
“With the establishment of the family violence teams, our police members are proactively targeting family violence and recidivism in family violence.”
Inspector Paterson said greater reporting of family violence accounted for an increase of more than 10 per cent in the past year.
“Over a third of family violence incidents reported resulted in charges being laid,” he said.
“We are using all our available options and holding offenders to account, laying charges against them, bringing them before the courts and sending a clear message that family violence won’t be tolerated.”
Reported incidents in Maribyrnong have skyrocketed from 328 in 2010 to 848 in 2014.
Maribyrnong police’s Inspector Michelle Young said the increase was due to more victims speaking out.
“It’s becoming recognised and accepted that it’s not tolerated and in the past 12 months in particular there has been an increased public campaign and legislative change.”
Inspector Young said family violence was very much a priority for Victoria Police, as shown by Acting Chief Commissioner Tim Cartwright’s announcement last Tuesday of Australia’s first Family Violence Command, dedicated to family violence, sexual assault and child abuse. Police referred 820 women in January and 760 women in February to Footscray-based Women’s Health West (WHW).
Its chief executive Robyn Gregory expects this figure to rise as more women gain confidence in the system.
“We’ve got a government that’s taking family violence seriously, politicians who are taking it seriously; there are services available and Australian of the year, Rosie Batty, has put family violence more front and centre on the agenda,” Dr Gregory said.
Police Minister and Williamstown MP Wade Noonan said police attended a family violence incident every eight minutes in 2014.
“We welcome the fact that more people are coming forward and reporting family violence to police, but this is revealing the true scale of the family violence emergency that our community faces.”
– with Sumeyya Ilanbey
