Senator Cox says independent oversight is needed after Perth double murder

Independent oversight of an investigation into a double murder in Perth is needed, as violence against women in Australia reaches a crisis point, Greens Senator Dorinda Cox says.

The former police officer from Western Australia said she didn’t trust an internal police investigation into its handling of interactions with the family of murderer Mark Bombara.

Bombara killed Jenny Petelczyc, the friend of his ex-wife, and her 18-year-old daughter Gretl Petelczyc in their Floreat home, before taking his own life.

His daughter, Ariel Bombara, claimed WA police repeatedly ignored her warnings that her father was violent and possessed several guns.

Bombara believed his ex-wife had been staying at the Floreat house.

In response to the WA police holding an internal investigation, Senator Cox said “Police investigating police is not the best practice solution”.

“We need independent oversight,” she told ABC’s RN.

“It allows us to really get into the detail to ask all the difficult questions that sometimes an agency aren’t able to do that internally.

“It’s in everyone’s best interest that we make that quite a public space to have this conversation.

“It’s not about blame, and it’s not about criticism, it is about actually getting to improvement in the system, improvement in our responses, and saving the lives of women and children in this country.”

Senator Cox said the nation was at “crisis point” with a disproportionate amount of women dying across the country.

She said a rapid review announced by the Albanese government on Tuesday into domestic violence needed to have women of colour informing it, given how Indigenous women and children were impacted by violence.