Putting safety first

| June 19, 2012
Figures showing violence against women and children in Australia paint a picture grim picture. Angela Lynch says new changes to the Family Law Act might make life safer for families living in dangerous households.
According to the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and Children, at least 1 in 3 women have experienced physical violence since the age of 15 years and almost 1 in 5 sexual violence? The fact that these numbers are so high is a real indictment on our society.

There is also well-respected research that establishes a clear inter-relationship between violence against women and violence against children. If you think about it, this makes sense. Domestic violence is about exerting power and control over another person in the family, often in a domineering and intimidatory way. If a person uses these kinds of tactics against their spouse, it isn’t beyond the realms of possibility that they might also act in the same way towards their children. It is not unsurprising therefore that a large percentage of the work of the family law system is responding to these issues.

On June 7, 2012, the Family Law Amendment (Family Violence and Other Measures) Act came into effect. Women’s Legal Services Australia strongly supported the changes as a ‘step in the right direction’. The changes were a response to a number of research reports, commissioned by the government, which found the legislation and procedure in the family law system, was placing children at risk of family violence and abuse.

Amongst other things the recent changes broadened the definitions of ‘family violence’ and ‘child abuse’. The language was brought up to date with the latest understandings of these issues, including that child abuse involved ‘exposure to violence’. The friendly parent provision was reworked and the mandatory costs provision for the making of false allegations or statements was removed, although the general costs provisions remains. There was evidence that the friendly parent and mandatory costs provisions, in particular were acting as disincentives to victims raising safety concerns. Perhaps the most significant change was that the courts are now directed to give greater weight to a child’s safety as a primary consideration in determining what is in the child’s best interest.

An ongoing concern is there has been no removal of the overall emphasis in the Act on shared parenting. Although shared parenting may work well in some families, it can be dangerous for women and children who are living with violence because of the power it gives the abuser and the amount of ongoing contact it allows them with the family. Although some groups argue that the changes will result in a raft of false allegations, there is simply no evidence that backs up these claims. Any research into the issue of false allegations, has consistently found that the claims of widespread ‘rorting’ are untrue and over-exaggerated. Any allegations of family violence also have to be tested and proven and are not simply accepted at ‘face value’.

The women we work with who are escaping violence generally want their children to have an ongoing relationship with their father but they want the relationship to be safe. Only in the most extreme cases do women seek no contact and this is often after all other attempts at safe contact have failed. Women’s Legal Services Australia wholeheartedly support our clients’ position in regard to ‘safe contact’. We hope these latest changes will make this easier to achieve.

Angela Lynch is a lawyer and national law reform coordinator with Women’s Legal Services Australia (WLSA), which is a national network of Women’s Legal Services.  Women’s Legal Services are located in each State and Territory and they specialise in providing family law legal advice and assistance to women, particularly when there are issues of family violence.  For more information see www.wlsa.org.au

 

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  1. C. Johnson

    C. Johnson

    June 19, 2012 at 1:54 am

    Its not only about women

    Although I support your arguments somewhat about protecting children and women against violence I do not agree that there should be changes to the Act about shared parenting. One must remember the violence that women incur on men. Let’s look at the physiological violence that women place on men, their use of their children to promote this violence and the over use of intervention orders. Denying access to their children is a tool used by women to manipulate their situations and used to give them empowerment over men that leads many men into deep depression and suicide.

    This section of the Act is to try and even out the imbalance that women should be the prime carer. Research suggests that women can be more violent than men. Society as a whole needs more education on violence and segmentation of sexes need to move beyond that of violence against women and look more at family violence. It is naive that women do not incur violence on men. Many men will not discuss this as it’s seen as some sort of weakness. Support service for men is poor and the courts do not seem interested in violence against men.   

     

    • Angela Lynch

      Angela Lynch

      June 20, 2012 at 4:25 am

      Its not all about women

      There is no doubt that there are some men who are also subject to family and domestic violence however, the accepted research, overwhelming domestically and internationally over the last 30 – 40 years has found that women are the main victims.  The latest research also advises us that quantitative research that simply measures numbers of incidents of violent incidents is not good enough,  and that contextual research that picks up on the subtle and less obvious forms of violence is necessary to truly understand the issue and therefore formulate appropriate legislative and policy responses. 
  2. cathzena

    June 19, 2012 at 2:27 am

    Not as welcome as I thought

    This serivce looked forward to the new Family Law challenges as we hoped that it would assist in keeping women and children safer. Unfortunately we have had two experiences in the past week with women applying for intervention orders. The perpetrators legal aid representitive advised two clients not to agree to an order unless the children were removed from the order as the new family law reforms would severely impact on any ongoing family law matters. One woman removed the children from the list as she feared for her safety, while another will now be facing another court date in a contested hearing.

    The new reforms will only make it safer for women and children if legal representitives do not create a fear campaign that prevents first level protection measures from being implimented.