Family Violence Act 2018

Brief Description

The Family Violence Act will come into force on 1 July 2019. The Bill lays the foundations for the transformation of the family violence response syste. The aim of the Act is to:
- keep victims of family violence safe
- hold perpetrators to account
- ensure adequate responses
- promote consistent and collaborative responses to people experiencing family violence. 

Collaboration will be enabled by improving information sharing practices, developing agreed codes of practice and creating new pathways into services through Police Safety Orders and Family Court prescribed services. 

The Act provides for the following changes:
- improves Police safety orders to protect victims and stop people from committing family violence
- introduces legal provisions to support family violence information sharing 
- recognises that dowry abuse is a form of family violence
- clarifies that a carer and recipient of care relationship can be a type of family relationship
- allows NGOs, with the approval of the Secretary for Justice, to apply for a protection order for a person who can't apply themselves
- empowers the court to consider certain croteria when deciding whether to discharge a protection order (including a temporary protection order)
- empowers the court to add any children of a victim to a protection order, even if they aren't currently living with the victim.