Recommendation 7 That training materials and the Information Sharing Protocol must build on the safeguards in the Act and the Regulations by paying specific attention to police perpetrators and police officers who engage in conduct that risks the safety of victim survivors of domestic and family violence and child maltreatment and/or the safety of notifiers. [...] We welcomed the ALRC’s recommendation for a children and young people’s advisory group for the family law system,19 the 2023 reforms to strengthen the role of Independent Children’s Lawyers and their direct engagement with children,20 and the expectation, set out in the National Principles to Address Coercive Control in Family and Domestic Violence, that the perspectives of children and young peop. [...] The consequence of the division of powers means that: neither the Commonwealth nor the States’ jurisdiction provides a family unit with the complete suite of judicial solutions to address all of the legal issues that may impact on a family in respect of their children.26 The fragmentation of the system has also led to a fragmentation of practice. [...] In its 2019 report on Australia’s family law system, the ALRC again identified issues arising from fragmentation of protective orders made in the context of family violence.28 In 2022, and in the context of the ACT’s DFV system, Easteal et al wrote that the complexities and inadequacies of the dynamic between the ACT’s FV legislation and the federal family law system emerged in our research as a k. [...] The risk of an escalation in the aggressive and violent behaviour of the perpetrator and heightened risk to the partner and children during family court proceedings.
Authors
- Pages
- 42
- Published in
- Australia
Table of Contents
- Inquiry into Family Violence Orders 1
- Recommendations 1
- The work of Relationships Australia 5
- Recommendations made under the Framing Principles 1
- Recommendations made under Term of Reference 1 1
- Recommendations made under Term of Reference 2 2
- Recommendations made under Term of Reference 3 4
- Recommendations made under Term of Reference 4 4
- served more than 140,000 clients across more than 100 locations and 97 outreach locations 5
- employed 2,340 staff to offer more than 320 separate services/programs 5
- launched more than 25 new programs 5
- participated in over 29 research projects, and 5
- individual, couples, and family counselling 5
- family law counselling, mediation and dispute resolution, and post-separation services for parents and children 5
- Children’s Contact Services (services which provide supervised contact and changeovers for high risk families) 5
- Specialised Family Violence Services 5
- services designed for men, including programs to support parenting capacities and resources,0F Men’s Behaviour Change Programs, and tailored programs such as the Respectful Relationships Program for Indigenous clients1F 5
- a range of tailored services for older Australians, including senior relationship services, elder mediation, elder abuse case management and mediation, social connection services and mental health services in residential aged care on behalf of Prima... 5
- therapeutic and case management services to applicants for Redress Support Services, Forgotten Australians, Forced Adoption Support Services, Intercountry Adoptee Family Support Service, and Post Adoption Support Services 6
- services designed for men, including programs to support parenting capacities and resources, Men’s Behaviour Change Programs, and tailored programs such as the Respectful Relationships Program for Indigenous clients 6
- gambling help services 6
- alcohol and other drugs services 6
- employee assistance programs 6
- Headspace (youth mental health) services 6
- mental health (including suicide prevention) services and programs, and 6
- Family Mental Health Support Services. 6
- 1.7 million members of our community (or 8.8%) feel unsafe disagreeing with their most important person, and 6
- 59% of people who felt unsafe disagreeing with their important person were aged 55 years or more. 6
- nearly a quarter (23%) presented with high levels of psychological distress, and 6
- 68% reported experiencing at least one form of abuse, with verbal abuse being the most common (64%).5F 7
- the Australian Law Reform Commission Issues Paper 48 and Discussion Paper 85 7
- the 2020 inquiry by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs into family, domestic and sexual violence 7
- the inquiry by the Joint Select Committee into Australia’s Family Law System 7
- drafts of the 2022-2032 National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 7
- the inquiry by the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee into the Family Law Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2023 7
- the Government’s exposure draft of the Family Law Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2023, which includes reforms to clarify how DFV should be addressed in financial and property matters before the family law courts, and 7
- the current Inquiry into financial abuse by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services. 7
- Framing Principles for this submission 7
- Principle 1 - Commitment to human rights 7
- Principle 2 – Accessible and inclusive public institutions, regulation and service delivery 8
- Principle 3 - cultural safety and responsiveness 8
- Principle 4 - the agency, rights and safety of children 9
- Principle 5 – accessible legal and regulatory frameworks 11
- reducing complexity of the law and its supporting systems and processes 11
- reducing fragmentation, and 12
- high quality and evidence-based regulation, accompanied by robust and timely accountability mechanisms. 12
- Principle 6 – geographic equity 12
- Principle 7 – fragmentation and siloing 12
- reducing fragmentation 12
- reducing complexity of the law and its supporting processes, to benefit not only those families who require a judicial disposition of their matters, but also families who will ‘bargain in the shadow of the law’,24F and 12
- reducing barriers to access arising from financial or economic disadvantage, as well as other positionalities and circumstances that create barriers to accessing services (including by promoting geographic equity). 12
- Comments responding to the Terms of Reference 15
- 1. The risk of an escalation in the aggressive and violent behaviour of the perpetrator and heightened risk to the partner and children during family court proceedings. 15
- Children 16
- Escalation after proceedings – implementation of court orders 17
- 2. The current barriers for litigants in the family law system to obtain and enforce FVOs, including but not limited to: 21
- a) the additional difficulty for victims of violence in the family law system to attend multiple courts for their family law order proceedings and an FVO 21
- b) the intersection between FVOs and parenting orders, including that a family court parenting order may override an FVO 21
- c) the availability of wrap-around support services and security for victims of violence. 21
- Multiple courts (Term of Reference 2 (a)) 21
- Intersection between FVOs and orders under Part VII of the Family Law Act 24
- Wraparound support services – Term of Reference 2(c)) 25
- people experiencing physical violence in relationships use at least four wellbeing or family law services before or during separation (Kaspiew et al, 2015) 26
- people reporting physical harm before or after separation are twice as likely to use a counselling, relationship or dispute resolution service than a domestic violence service, (Kaspiew et al, 2015), and 26
- parents accessed an average of eight different services when finalising parenting disputes under the Family Law Act. (Carson et al, 2018). 26
- all prosecution offices and courts be child safe organisations 27
- governments fund case management and navigation support for people using the family law, DFV and child protection systems 27
- police, prosecutors and court staff be equipped and empowered to provide victim survivors with warm referrals to case management and psychosocial supports 27
- providers of psychosocial support services, with expertise in working with victim survivors of sexual violence, be embedded at all courts hearing sexual violence matters; those providers should also be resourced, and have the capability, to ‘warm re... 27
- 3. How FVOs could be more accessible for victims of violence going through the family law system, including but not limited to: 28
- a) making it easier to apply for and enforce an FVO 28
- b) co-location arrangements that would allow an application or enforcement of an FVO to be heard in the same physical location as the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia 28
- c) the legal and non-legal support services required to promote early identification of and response to family violence. 28
- Legal and non-legal support services required to promote early identification of and response to family violence 29
- 4. Any other reform that would make it safer and fairer for victims of violence in the family law system who need the protection of FVOs. 30
- Perpetrator interventions 30
- Demand 30
- across the programs offered by Relationships Australia in NSW: 245 men, 30
- in Western Australia: 60 men, 31
- wait times of up to 17 weeks (compared to an average of 2 weeks) in some locations across Victoria, 31
- in south-eastern Queensland: approximately 130 men and in Cairns, over 100 men.66F 31
- In Northern Queensland, Relationships Australia’s MBCP are funded in specific regional locations to take place only once per year, meaning that applications are only opened prior to a scheduled session and then closed as soon as the session is at ca... 31
- Across the country, the number of locations where MBCP is delivered has been reducing due to the growing costs associated with delivering them and the lack of ongoing, secure investment by governments. 31
- MBCP evaluation 32
- FVOs and coercive control 33
- Intersections between family law, DFV and abuse and neglect of older people (ANOP) 34
- Resourcing 35
- Conclusion 36
- References 37
