Women subjected to sexual assault in Queensland are struggling to obtain rape kits and in some cases are being charged for forensic medical examinations.
The horrific details are included in the Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce’s final report tabled by Women’s Minister and Attorney General Shannon Fentiman this week.
The revelations, which taskforce chair Justice Margaret McMurdo has described as ‘heart-wrenching’, have prompted the LNP Opposition to demand the Palaszczuk Government “immediately” make rape kits free and available for all women across Queensland.
In one account, a woman travelled 1300km for an examination only to be turned back because of a miscommunication.
Others have had rape kits accidentally destroyed, or are being left to wait for treatment in emergency departments for hours at a time with no food, water or clean clothing.
The report also found that victims who were not eligible for Medicare were in some cases forced to pay for medical treatment.
Growing accounts of sexual assault against women comes as Queensland leads the nation on proportionally higher numbers of women in prison, with incarceration rates directly linked to experiences of ‘lived’ sexual violence.
Findings in the report highlight that one in five women and one in 20 men in Queensland experience sexual violence, but only 13 per cent of sexual assaults are reported to police.
Numbers of women in prison have grown by more than 30 per cent in recent years, almost four times the male offender growth rate.
Source: Price of justice: Report says female sexual assault victims forced to buy own rape kits