Family domestic violence, intervention orders, safety notices Family law Australia.

The family law system in Australia encourages people to agree on arrangements without going to court including family relationship breakdown, children, and financial/property issues.

Most family law matters can be resolved through mediation and negotiation. We will take you through this process to reduce anxiety and costs for just and equitable outcome.

If you must go to court, we will fight for your rights!

Among parents who use courts to resolve their parenting issues, 85% report a history of emotional abuse and more than half (54%) report physical hurt from their former partner.68 These patterns are similar among parents who use lawyer led negotiation to resolve parenting arrangement but physical hurt is less common in this group (39%).69 Lower proportions of parents who use FDR to resolve parenting issues report emotional abuse (73.7%) and physical hurt (27%).70 Safety concerns are also prevalent to different extents among court users (46%), parents who use lawyers to resolve their issues (34%) and those who use FDR (26%).

What is family violence in Australia?

Broader definition of family violence

The Family Violence Protection Act 2008 extends the definition of ‘family violence’ to behaviour that is physically or sexually abusive, emotionally or psychologically abusive, threatening or coercive, or in any other way controls or dominates the family member and causes that family member to fear for his or her safety or wellbeing or for the safety or wellbeing of another person.

Examples of behaviour that may be considered family violence for the purposes of the Act include:

• causing a child to hear or witness, or otherwise be exposed to the effects of, family violence;
• coercing a family member to relinquish control over assets and income;
• removing or keeping a family member’s property without permission, or threatening to do so;
• threatening to disclose a person’s sexual orientation to the person’s friends or family against the person’s wishes;
• threatening to withhold a person’s medication;
• preventing a person from making or keeping connections with the person’s family, friends or culture, including cultural or spiritual ceremonies or practices, or preventing the person from expressing the person’s cultural identity; or
• threatening to die by suicide or self-harm with the intention of tormenting or intimidating a family member.

What to do in family violence in Australia?

If you need immediate assistance in a family violence situation, call the police on 000, at any hour.

Police will attend and provide advice and some limited assistance. It is important to insist that the police take a formal statement of complaint. If it is an emergency, the police may also apply for an intervention order on your behalf or detain a person to allow you time to apply for an intervention order. This can be done at night or during weekends as well as during week days.

It is important for the victim to keep a written diary of all incidents that may form the basis of a complaint. This should include time and place, any witnesses, any attendance for medical attention and any contact with the police.

Most family violence is committed by men against women, it can also be committed by women against men or in same-sex relationships.

Family violence can occur between any members of a family or household. It includes physical, sexual, psychological, emotional and economic abuse. Any behaviour that physically or emotionally hurts you or makes you scared of being harmed is a form of violence.

If emergency accommodation or support is needed, call the Women's Domestic Violence Crisis Service of Victoria (previously the Refuge Referral Service) on 9322 3555 (24-hour service) or 1800 015 188 outside the metropolitan area.

Apply for Family violence intervention orders

The Victorian Family Violence Protection Act 2008 allows a family member to apply to the Magistrates’ Court for an intervention order against another family member where there has been family violence. A family violence intervention order restricts some behaviour of people, for example, what they can do, where they can go. A family violence intervention order may prohibit or restrict a person (the respondent) from:

• Committing family violence against the protected person
• Behaving offensively towards the protected person
• Approaching (or going near) a protected person
• Attending premises where a protected person lives, works or frequents
• Being at a particular location
• Following the protected person
• Contacting or communicating with the protected person
• Damaging property owned by the protected person
• Arranging for another person to do what the respondent is not allowed to do as stated in the order

An intervention order may also:

• Direct the respondent to participate in prescribed counselling
• Suspend or cancel any firearms licence, permit or authority or weapons approval or exemption held by the respondent

Housing and Support Services

A woman being subjected to family violence has the problem of where to go (especially if she has children) if she wishes to escape from the place where she is living.

There are now several halfway houses for women in emergency situations which provide free short-term accommodation (for women and their children), advice and counselling, legal assistance, help in applying for pensions and obtaining work, and generally assisting women to start a new life. There is usually no means test and the only prerequisite is the woman’s immediate need. Women’s refuges are available to all women in need regardless of whether they are married or not or whether or not they have children.

There are also counselling and support services available for violent men.

Contacts & Further Information

Intervention Orders in family violence Australia

Intervention order – A Court order under the Crimes (Family Violence) Act restraining a person from harmful or annoying conduct against a family member

A victim (adult or child) of family violence may obtain an intervention order. In many cases, it is a fast and easily accessible way to get immediate short-term as well as long -term protection.

Under the FVPA, a victim of family violence may obtain an intervention order in the local Magistrates' Court. In many cases it is a fast and easily accessible remedy for a victim who needs immediate short-term protection. An order may be:

• interim (for a short period); or
• final (for a longer or indefinite period).

Orders may also be made ex parte (without the other party being present) either as an interim intervention order (if urgent) or as a final intervention order (if the other party, i.e the respondent, cannot be located or chooses not to attend).

Under section 53 of the FVPA, an interim intervention order may be made by a Magistrate who is satisfied on the balance of probabilities that an interim order is necessary pending a final decision about the application

Breach of a family violence intervention order

An application for a family violence intervention order is a civil matter between the parties, unlike a criminal matter which is between the State of Victoria and an individual. If a family violence intervention order is breached (that is, the conditions of an intervention order are not complied with), the respondent may be charged by the police with a criminal offence for breaching the intervention order. The penalties for breaching an intervention order may be:

• Fine up to $24,000
• Imprisonment for up to two years
• Fine up to $24,000 and imprisonment for up to two years

A family violence intervention order is a civil matter between the parties, unlike a criminal matter which is between the State of Victoria and an individual.

In the past, perpetrators of family violence were rarely prosecuted and even where they were, they were often given lenient sentences. Today, however, the courts give place greater importance on the devastating effects of family violence. Courts now acknowledge that the effects of family violence:

[Pasinis v R [2014] VSCA 97 at [54] (footnotes omitted)]

are not confined to physical injury. Victims often feel responsible for the violence and ashamed that they were not able to prevent the perpetrator from offending … it is common for victims to deny or conceal that their partners have assaulted them until the violence becomes unbearable … Victims who have been dominated, controlled and beaten by their partners over a significant period experience serious and longlasting psychological trauma … the physical effects of the violence and its erosion of the victim’s confidence can also affect their ability to participate in paid work and have other serious financial effects.

[See Pasinis v R [2014] VSCA 97; Robertson v R [2005] VSCA 190; Earl v R [2008] VSCA 162; Smith v R [2010] VSCA 192; Hester v R [2007] VSCA 298]

For those reasons, courts now emphasise the need to condemn family violence.

[DPP v Portelli [2013] VSC 588 at [22]], Dixon J noted that:

It is clear that the community is intolerant of violent behaviour in such circumstances and expects the courts to send a strong message that behaviour of this kind is totally unacceptable. Women in domestic situations are entitled to feel safe from the violently abusive behaviour of their ex-partners.

[See DPP v Smeaton [2007] VSCA 256; DPP v Muliaina [2005] VSCA 13; Earl v R [2008] VSCA 162; DPP v Huynh [2010] VSC 37]

Further, offences occurring in the context of family violence will frequently involve breaches of trust and assaults on comparatively defenceless victims, thereby increasing the seriousness of such offences.

Attachments

• Family violence information sheet
• The impact of family violence on children
• Parental conflict and its effect on children
• Compulsory Family Dispute Resolution – Court Procedures and Requirements