Margie Maccoll
More than 500 domestic violence incidents were investigated by police in Noosa in the past year, an increase of 20 per cent from the previous year, Noosa police chief Ben Carroll said on Sunday.
Speaking at Noosa Zonta Walk to End Violence, Acting Inspector Carroll saie Noosa had a relatively low crime rate which visitors expected in such a beautiful place but, sadly, the same couldn’t be said about domestic violence (DV).
Every day in Noosa there are an estimated 1.4 incidences of DV and the number of breaches of DV orders has increased 46 per cent in the past year.
Inspector Carroll said police attributed some of the increase to the impact of Covid, saying it had placed considerable pressure on the psyche of people, on families and businesses.
“We are working hard to bring the numbers down but we can’t do it on our own,“ he said. “We will never police ourselves out of domestic violence.“
Inspector Carroll praised organisations such as Zonta for saying a resounding no to violence against women and was honoured to be part of their event.
Noosa Zonta president Margie Fisher described violence against women as one of the most pervasive forms of violence as it took place predominantly at home, affected millions of women worldwide, and prevented them from contributing to their communities and creating better lives for themselves.
Ms Fisher said since 2012 Zonta clubs around the world had united to advocate to stop violence against women. As part of their efforts, Zonta had raised funds for health care and education for women in various countries in a bid to improved the lives of women and create a more stable society.
Recently they had focused efforts in Afghanistan where conditions had been imposed on women which prevented them from participating fully in society and accessing education without fear for their safety, she said.
