(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
South Australia's Coroner has delivered a scathing assessment of the state police's failure to protect a woman who was publicly murdered by her husband.
Zahra Abrahimzadeh was stabbed to death by her husband Ziaolleh at a community event, despite a restraining order against him.
The Coroner was so disappointed with police that he directed his inquest recommendations not to the Police Commissioner, but the Premier.
And, as Karen Ashford reports, the push is on for national changes.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
Appalling, desultory, ineffective and deserving of censure - that's how Coroner Mark Johns described the South Australian police's handling of the Abrahimzadeh case.
The result was the brutal stabbing death of the 44 year old mother-of-three in front of her children and 300 horrified onlookers at a Persian community function in March 2010.
The Afghan man's arranged marriage to his Iranian wife was beset with violence from its earliest days, with evidence of beatings and death threats which escalated when Zahra sought a divorce her husband feared would financially ruin him.
Despite a long history of violence against his wife and children and the existence of a restraining order against him, Ziaolleh Abrahimzadeh was granted permission to attend a Persian New Year event and tried to sit at the same table as his estranged wife.
As she and the children moved to leave, Abrahimzadeh produced a knife and stabbed her repeatedly in the chest.
He was given a life sentence in 2012 but, as Deputy Commissioner Grant Stevens concedes, had police acted the murder might not have occurred.
"I don't think I've ever hidden from the fact that our service in this particular case was appalling. I used different words during the coroner's inquest but certainly that was the sentiment that was being conveyed. We didn't do a good enough job and whilst we may never know whether or not the failures on the part of South Australia police directly led to the death of Zahra, we can be sure that those failures provided a degree of impunity for Ziaolleh to actually take the course of action that he did and for that we are very sorry and have apologised to the family."
The coroner found police had repeatedly ignored opportunities to arrest Ziaolleh Abrahimzadeh.
Deputy Commissioner Stevens admits police failed the family on multiple occasions, and that the mistakes were systemic and avoidable.
He says the officers involved have been punished and police have already begun improving their management of domestic violence cases.
"There are wide-ranging changes - we've identified about 48 changes that need to happen within SAPOL - some of those changes are already well underway. The most significant is that we've developed a domestic violence portfolio, which I chair, and that is designed to ensure that the focus on domestic violence and our operational response is complementary to our policies and procedures and that we provide the level of service that people have a right to expect."
Coroner Johns took the unusual step of directing his findings not to the Police Commissioner, but to Premier, in the hope of improvements.
Premier Jay Weatherill says whilst the traditional separation of powers means he can't direct the Police Commissioner, he can - and will - ensure the Coroner's recommendations are acted on.
"The dichotomy between the way in which government relates to operational (police) issues is only one that is a tradition. If we do not see police responding in a way that is adequate - they are part of executive government and they will respond to decisions and dictates of executive government."
The Premier has committed to a state strategy against domestic violence, targetting not just the attitude of police, but of the community at large.
"What we know is that is proceeds in many cases from the erroneous assumption that men have some property rights over women and we see these things commonly expressed in the break-up of a relationship, or when women are not prepared to behave as the personal property of men. This is a massive cultural issue in our community. It lies at the heart of domestic violence and so that is why I am accepting responsibility to respond on this basis - not because it doesn't involve issues associated with the police, but it involves many more things than just the conduct of police."
About ten-thousand domestic violence incidents are reported in South Australia each year, and Premier Weatherill says he will expect police to approach domestic violence with renewed rigour.
He says some of the changes are ground-breaking.
"A number of the initiatives that South Australia are putting in place are indeed being copied around the nation. We have recently reformed our domestic violence arrangements to have the on-the-spot expiation arrangements which are directed at ensuring that the perpetrator is immediately removed from the home setting so as to protect the woman. Rather than having to shift the woman and find a safe house for the woman - it's about also protecting them immediately through the mechanism of not having to go to a court. So we are pioneering a range of progressive changes."
The Abrahimzadeh case is one of a number of failures across Australia to protect women from violent partners.
The Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils says some women are particularly vulnerable.
Pallavi Sinha is a human rights lawyer and FECCA's Women's chairperson.
"I'm acutely aware of the difficulties that women from CALD (Culturally and Linguistically Diverse) backgrounds experiences, such as socio-economic disadvantage, they may have language barriers, they may have lower literacy levels and a lot of them don't have an awareness of their rights, of Australian social values, of the law, support networks and where to get help.
Pallavi Sinha says the Federation supports the coroner's recommendations for significant improvements to police management of domestic violence, including better training, communications and legal oversight.
But she says it's needed nationally, not just in South Australia.
She's welcomed the federal government's recent commitment to spend $100 million over four years to reduce violence against women and children.
Ms Sinha says independent analysis puts the economic cost of domestic violence at around $14 billion a year, while the human cost equates to one in three women experiencing physical violence, and an average of one woman dying every week at the hands of her current or former partner.
"Unfortunately it does appear to be getting worse and it is a very serious national issue. There's this case, this sad case, of what happened in Adelaide. There's many cases in Melbourne, in New South Wales, all around Australia, so the federal government really needs to show resolve and that they're taking this issue very seriously."
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