November 26, 2015
The District Law Association and Kingaroy Rotary took the opportunity of White Ribbon Day on Wednesday to shine a light on the problem of domestic violence in the South Burnett.
A sold-out breakfast held at SB Care in Kingaroy attracted 120 people to listen to guest speakers Jim Sloane, the men’s support worker at Graham House in Murgon, and local magistrate Simon Young, who earlier this year released a list of statistics about domestic violence in the local area.
The problem may be depressing but there was also a very positive result from the breakfast, more than $6000 raised for programs delivered in the South Burnett by Graham House and UnitingCare Community.
District Law Association president Caroline Cavanagh, the driving force behind the breakfast, said she had hoped to raise $5000, so she was very happy with the result.
Calls to domestic violence incidents keep police busy.
Police Prosecutor Sergeant Wayne Bushell – who put on a chef’s hat to cook the breakfast – said that in a recent week there had been a total of 50 applications for domestic violence orders before South Burnett courts.
He said domestic violence had always been a problem for police, but in recent years they were receiving a lot more calls, possibly because more people were willing to come forward because of publicity.
“People are beginning to talk about it more readily,” Sgt Bushell said.
Related articles:
- Download SB domestic violence statistics (111kb PDF)
- Safer Families Build Better Communities
- Clare’s Law Proposal Puts Spotlight On DV
External link:
Well done.