The deaths of Jennifer and Gretl Petelczyc have shocked WA. What has the government done to prevent this from happening again?

It has now been three weeks since Jennifer and Gretl Petelczyc were shot dead in their Floreat home by a gunman looking for his estranged wife.

It is one of WA’s most shocking incidents of family and domestic violence and has sparked an outpouring of grief and frustration which has only been amplified by Ariel Bombara’s claims that she attempted to warn the police three times about his father.

The aftermath was as expected: an internal police investigation into Ariel’s experience, overseen by the Corruption and Crime Commission, and the government’s commitment to do “better to end domestic violence “.

But a sense of frustration persists among those who fight family and domestic violence every day over problems they say are not being resolved.

What has the government done?

The government has mainly focused on strengthening its new gun laws, which were halfway through parliament when quiet Floreat Street hit the headlines.

Currently, police have the power to seize firearms when they believe it “could cause harm to any person” – but this doesn’t seem to happen very often.

Licenses are also revoked when a family and domestic violence restraining order is granted by a court, which happened 215 times in the six months to the end of March.

At least 13 of them obtained the return of their weapons by appealing to the State Administrative Court – a possibility that will be eliminated under the new laws.

These new laws will now go further by requiring police to automatically seize firearms whenever a report of family and domestic violence is filed – an addition the Prime Minister announced just over a week after Floreat.

These amendments were presented to Parliament earlier this week, along with changes to strengthen the rules regarding collector’s licenses, as the firearm used by the shooter belonged to a collector’s license.

Beyond that, not much has changed from what they did before.

What were they doing before?

The government had already planned to introduce mandatory GPS monitoring for convicted family and domestic violence perpetrators, which was announced last year but is only expected to be debated in parliament next week.

But as Minister for the Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence Sabine Winton told Parliament: “Gun laws, GPS or coercive control or any other law will not solve the problem alone “.

This is why she also agreed to a five-year reform plan, which will bring major changes to the functioning of the system to combat family and domestic violence.

“I have asked the Department for Communities to identify which actions under the system reform plan can be accelerated to have the greatest immediate impact,” Ms Winton said in a statement.

“In addition, I have consulted with key stakeholders to obtain their advice on additional measures the government may consider.”

The state budget also included nearly $100 million for various programs, including:

• expanding family and domestic violence response teams, which bring together the police, the Department for Communities, other government agencies and family and domestic violence services
• Create a one-stop shop for the fight against family and domestic violence
• $7 million for organizations to provide flexible and direct financial support to women
• $4 million for rapid rehousing in regional WA.

Does all this go far enough?

In the eyes of a sector stretched well beyond its capacity, this is welcome, but not sufficient.

Jennie Gray runs the Women’s Legal Service in Perth, which turns away around five women every day.

Although the gun reform changes “will bring comfort to some women” whose partners use guns to threaten them, she said funding is the most pressing need on the front lines – both for early intervention as well as for prevention and crisis services.

Lived experience expert Alison Scott, whose sister Jessica was murdered by her husband in 2019, agrees.

“People in the worst situations, where their lives are in danger, are forced to sleep in their cars, to be on the streets, to find themselves in dangerous situations, because services are saturated,” he said. she declared.

What else should the government do?

Both women also want the government to consider different solutions to this stubbornly difficult problem.

Dr Gray says better training for frontline responders – to reduce inconsistencies between officers – was essential.

“Sometimes, Women’s Legal Service attorneys recommend that women go directly to a magistrates’ court to seek a domestic violence restraining order, where specialized services are available, rather than present to the police because this response is recorded,” she said.

This is an area Ms Scott said she was happy WA Police were working on, particularly around training and how officers work on a day-to-day basis.

“They’ve actually started talking to experts across the board, which is really exciting to see,” she said.

As might be expected, the government says it is open to new ideas.

This is something Dr. Gray hopes will lead to greater change from the momentum sparked by Jennifer and Gretl’s deaths.

“We need women to be believed, and we need their concerns about their safety to be taken seriously so that women are safer,” she said.

Educational programs targeting young people, such as in schools, are a good step in the right direction to achieve this type of cultural change.

“We need men to step up, to take up the cause, to step up and say that violence against women is not appropriate,” she said.

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