Witnesses tell a commission of inquiry that Queensland Police are issuing notices protecting perpetrators of family violence from their victims, with First Nations women disproportionately affected.
Women are being wrongly identified as being responsible for family violence incidents in Queensland each week, an inquiry has been told.
Thelma Schwartz, principal legal officer at the Queensland Indigenous Family Violence Legal Service, said it was common for women who had sustained years of abuse from their partners to be in a "heightened" state when police arrived at the scene of a reported incident. "It happens weekly; it happens across any of my offices in Queensland," Ms Schwartz told the inquiry.
Thelma Schwartz, the principal legal officer at the Queensland Indigenous Family Violence Legal Service."For example, a month ago, one of my duty lawyers came back to the office and said: 'All of my clients today were First Nations women who were defending police applications against them after they had called for help'."
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