The Palaszczuk Government’s approach to domestic and family violence is proving to be one of the most responsive in Australia, with figures showing Queensland has one of the nation’s highest rates for finalising Domestic and Family Violence Protection Orders.

Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Yvette D’Ath believes this was a sign that police and courts were acting efficiently on Domestic and Family Violence Protection Orders and that Queenslanders had confidence in the system.

“This data, which is a new element to the Report on Government Services, shows Queensland’s response to the recommendations of the Not Now, Not Ever: Putting an end to domestic and family violence in Queensland, is making a difference,” Mrs D’Ath said.

“This report shows more and more domestic and family violence victims are coming forward – a sign that they have faith in our system.”

Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence Shannon Fentiman said it was encouraging to see the Queensland Government’s strong approach to domestic and family violence was paying off.

“We are absolutely committed to protecting victims and their children, and holding perpetrators to account,” she said.

The recently released Productivity Commission’s Report on Government Services shows that in 2015-16, 53.6% of finalised civil cases in Queensland’s Magistrates Courts involved a finalised application for a Domestic and Family Violence-related Protection Order.

This was well above the national total of 31.3% and was the second highest in Australia, behind the Northern Territory.

“The Palaszczuk Government takes domestic and family violence very seriously and that is why we introduced the Specialist Domestic and Family Violence Court, which is being trialled at Southport,” Mrs D’Ath said.

“In 2015-16 we invested $1.75 million in the Specialist Domestic Violence Court and we have allocated $4.18 million over 2016-17 to complete the trial and its evaluation.

“We extended the trial of the Specialist Domestic Violence Court until June this year because there was a substantial increase in the number of domestic violence applications since the trial began. This was also proof that people feel more confident in coming forward.”

$42.4 million was also allocated in the 2016-17 Budget to roll out more specialist courts over four years.

Demographia’s 13th annual International Housing Affordability Survey shows that Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth are in the top 20 least affordable housing markets. According to the survey, Sydney is the second most unaffordable major housing market in the world behind Hong Kong, with Melbourne coming in fifth place.

Judging by their inaction, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison must be proud of this global notoriety for Australia’s major cities.

Australia has one of the most generous tax concessions for property investors in the world and the Federal Coalition Government simply refuses to countenance reforms to negative gearing or the capital gains tax discount.

It’s one thing to be doing nothing, but since the 2013 election, the Coalition has actively made housing affordability worse.

No Federal Minister for Housing and Homelessness has been appointed, and there is no national housing affordability plan being implemented.

The Coalition have also abolished the National Housing Supply Council and shut down the National Rental Affordability Scheme that provided over 30,000 new affordable housing units and was on track to achieve its target of 50,000. The Government continues to ignore the advice of independent economists, international economic agencies and think-tanks, who argue that Australia’s housing affordability crisis needs more than blaming the states for a lack of housing supply.

Recently, the Government has started to talk about housing affordability like it’s just discovered there’s a problem.

And yet, the Prime Minister and Treasurer manifestly refuse to accept any responsibility for this crisis or exert any leadership in the area with the main levers of government available to the Commonwealth, namely tax reform and tax incentives for property investors.

A trip to London will not fix the housing affordability crisis, especially when the Treasurer refuses to accept the Tory Government itself has reformed negative gearing!

If Australia’s housing markets aren’t working to give young first home buyers a decent chance at entering them, then they are failing.

And so it is only Labor that has a responsible plan to level the playing field by reforming negative gearing concessions – so that young families have a shot at the great Australian dream of owning their own home.

Chris Bowen & Jenny Macklin