WA domestic violence offences climbed after nationwide advocacy, $1b funding package announced in April

The murders that left a State in shock of a mum and daughter providing refuge for a friend in fear of her ex-husband has failed to curb rising rates of family attacks in WA. Despite high-profile deaths, nationwide rallies and almost $1 billion in funding committed from State and Federal governments across Australia in April, family and domestic violence offences continued to climb in May and June. New police statistics reveal that assault and threatening behaviour against family members is up almost 10 per cent over two months, rising from 3174 in April to 3458 in June. That period includes the shooting murder of Jennifer and Gretl Petelczyc by Mark Bombara in May, who had come to their Floreat home looking for his ex-wife. Days later, Bombara’s daughter, Ariel, made a firebrand video statement about the tragedy demanding authorities prioritise family and domestic violence protocols for the sake of women’s safety. “There needs to be a massive systemic change made to protect women to ensure that this never happens again,” she said. “Authorities should have helped us to stop him and they failed.” There were also national rallies which saw thousands of people take to streets across the country, and an emergency National Cabinet meeting was even called. But they have failed to limit WA’s domestic violence epidemic, with data showing an offence was committed every 13 minutes over the last 12 months. There were more than 39,000 assault and threatening behaviour offences in the 2023-24 financial year — up more than 16 per cent on the previous 12 months. Breaches of violence restraining orders — crucial in keeping families safe — also skyrocketed by 20 per cent, climbing to almost 17,000 across the same period. That amounts to a breach almost once every 30 minutes over 12 months. Liberal leader Libby Mettam seized on the figures, saying the State Government had not treated domestic violence as a priority. “Under Roger Cook’s Government, WA is the most dangerous State in Australia to be a woman,” she said. “Roger Cook has been too slow to act — he promised reforms to coercive control and GPS-tracking reforms last year, and he still hasn’t delivered. “Roger Cook didn’t even bother to allocate funding for GPS-tracking devices in the State Budget.” Police statistics showed the rates of domestic violence last year were 44 per cent higher than the five-year average, with sharp jumps over the past two financial years. Threatening behaviour against family members has almost doubled in just two years from 3884 in 2022 to more than 7500 to June. A State Government spokeswoman said Labor had a “long-standing” commitment to preventing family and domestic violence. “While we all want the number of family and domestic violence incidents to come down, as public awareness of family and domestic violence increases, we do expect — and encourage — an increase in reporting,” she said. “Unfortunately, greater access to technology means there are now more opportunities than ever for perpetrators to breach Family Violence Restraining Orders, for example, by sending multiple messages across a range of platforms. “Our Government takes family and domestic violence extremely seriously, which is why we also have a strong history of law reform to protect victim-survivors. “There is no acceptable level of family and domestic violence, and the Cook Government is committed to supporting victim-survivors and holding perpetrators to account.” 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732