Standing Committee on Social Policy & Legal Affairs – Inquiry into Family Violence Orders Introduction

The ASRC welcomes the opportunity from the Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs to provide a submission regarding how to provide better access for victim-survivors in the family law system to Family Violence Orders (FVO) and the effective enforcement of those orders. [...] In considering how to ensure better access for victim-survivors to FVOs and the efficient enforcement of such orders, reforms to the migration system must be implemented to remove the barriers to access FVOs caused and exacerbated by the migration system. [...] The Harmony Alliance 2020 survey was also the first national survey to ‘capture migration related controlling behaviours’.3 The failure of the Australian Government and those involved with the justice and family law system to specifically consider refugees and people seeking asylum overlooks the intersectionality of the barriers to protection and justice facing this cohort (in particular those wit. [...] Migration advice is essential to ensure victim-survivors are aware of the migration implications of their decision to engage in the family law and justice system on themselves and their loved ones, particularly where the perpetrator of the family violence is a family member or spouse (e.g. [...] Breaches of intervention orders due to destitution and lack of support for victim-survivors impacts individuals and clearly undermines the application of the rule of law as well as the public purpose and utility of intervention orders.