Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk revealed the decision during a sitting of state parliament on Tuesday morning, as part of the government’s response to the Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce report handed to it five months ago.
Queensland Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk attend a march earlier in 2021 calling for action against gendered violence in Parliament.She said “historic and wide-reaching reforms” would ensue after more than 700 submissions to the taskforce drove its 89 recommendations. The taskforce, chaired by former court of appeal president Margaret McMurdo, is due to deliver its second and final report in June.
A commission of inquiry into the police service, an idea rejected by Commissioner Katarina Carroll and the police union at the time, will be held over four months under the government’s plan.The government will also introduce a bill to criminalise coercive control, the term used to describe insidious domestic violence behaviour, by the end of 2023.