Insult to Hannah: Outrage as Senate ends violence inquiry early, without submissions
A Senate inquiry into domestic violence, set up days after a Brisbane mother and her three children were burned to death, has wrapped up three months early, without taking submissions or holding public hearings.
The move has drawn outrage from both the Law Council of Australia and crossbench senator Rex Patrick, who wrote a scathing dissenting report, claiming the committee ādid not discharge its responsibility to the Parliament and, more importantly, the publicā.
In the wake of the murder of Hannah Clarke and her children at the hands of their estranged partner and father, the Senateās Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee was asked to report on domestic and family violence in Australia.
The inquiry was given wide scope to examine the issue of family violence, including the implementation of previous recommendations, the adequacy of current measures and how the Government could address cultural change.
But in its final report, tabled yesterday, the committee said it āformed the view that conducting another lengthy, broad-ranging public inquiry into domestic and family violence in Australia at this time would be of limited valueā.
The report was compiled without calling for public submissions or holding public hearings, which Labor senator Kim Carr, who chairs the committee, said would have been of limited value given the coronavirus pandemic.
āWe are in the middle of a pandemic, we wanted to take this seriously and provide advice to the senate as to the current state of play,ā he said.
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Senator Patrick said he pushed for the inquiry after Ms Clarkeās murder, believing it showed too many cases were not being addressed by governments.
He said the committee āhas not done its job properlyā, by choosing not to seek submissions or hold hearings.
āThat is unforgiveable, that is a committee not doing its job properly.ā
Law council labels report a āscanty literature reviewā
The Law Council of Australia president Pauline Wright said her organisation was hoping for the chance to make a submission to the inquiry, so senators could hear firsthand from the experts.
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āItās a really sad failure of regard for the lives of Australians whoāve been lost to domestic violence,ā she said.
āIt seems that this report is the outcome of a fairly scanty literature review.
āIt demonstrates a lack of commitment by the decision makers to address this really serious community problem.ā
But Senator Carr said the inquiry was not conducted āin a half-arsed mannerā.
āWe wanted to ensure the report responded directly to the terms of reference, particularly in times when itās difficult to get people together in an effective manner,ā he said.
āWeāve added to the store of knowledge thatās available to the Senate so that we can inform public policy accordingly.ā
When the inquiry was set up by the Senate, Labor expressed concern that the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee was not the best place to deal with the issue, something Senator Carr repeated.
But Senator Patrick said that was no excuse for not conducting a thorough inquiry.
āDomestic violence comes across a number of different areas of government, including courts, including legal-related matters,ā he said.
āThe Senate has the ability to modify referrals, and if people truly believed it was the wrong committee, it could have been dealt with there and then.ā
ā ABC / Jordan Hayne and Dan Conifer
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