Amanda Stoker becomes Queensland's domestic violence prevention minister, resurfaced comments raise concern

Conservative politician Amanda Stoker has been appointed as Queensland's minister for the prevention of domestic violence in Australia, and the appointment has raised concern among organisations working on women's safety after some of her past comments resurfaced.

Stoker was appointed to the role on Saturday. Her portfolio also includes responsibility for the child safety system, and she takes over after the resignation of Amanda Camm.

The concern stems from a 2023 opinion piece published by the independent thinktank the Menzies Research Centre. In it, she argued that the recent push to believe complaints rather than carefully assess relevant evidence would harm innocent defendants, and that people should not blindly believe allegations of violence.

The former federal senator has repeatedly supported the rights of people accused of sexual assault and implied some were subject to false allegations, according to the report.

Former Australian of the Year Grace Tame, who criticised Stoker's appointment to the federal outer ministry in 2021, has described the new appointment as disappointing.

While some in the community sector welcomed Stoker's appointment in public, several people who work in Queensland supporting victims of domestic and sexual violence said they had private concerns about her taking over the portfolio. None would speak publicly, in an environment where support organisations say they have been warned not to criticise the government, and others have had public funding cut.

Stoker made a public name for herself as a young conservative figure, becoming a headline speaker at anti-abortion rallies and winning election to the Senate in 2018 with the backing of the Liberal National Party's faction of Christian soldiers. She left the Senate in 2022 and was elected to the Queensland parliament in 2024.

Her 2023 piece also raised concern about victim-focused reforms to the criminal justice system, including changes that allow the media to name accused rapists before they go to trial. Stoker wrote that the changes removed a small protection against the harm done to an accused person's reputation from adverse publicity in cases so weak that they do not even meet the standard necessary to go to trial.