National Domestic Violence Order Scheme: COAG Agreements
Tuesday 19 May 2015 @ 9.36 a.m. | Crime | Legal Research
Federal Minister Michaelia Cash has announced that a new scheme to recognise domestic violence orders across state borders may not be fully in place until the end of next year. This comes after the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed last month that urgent action was required regarding domestic violence, including the development of a national domestic violence order scheme by the end of 2015.
Background
According to Government statistics, one woman is killed every week in Australia as a result of domestic violence. Under the proposed national domestic violence order plan, protection orders will branch across state borders and COAG will consider new approaches to tackle the growing problem of online abuse toward victims.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said earlier this year:
“We all know that so many families do flee from city to city, from state to state to avoid violence, and if they’re fleeing violence, the violence should not be allowed to follow them,”
Under this proposed scheme, political leaders will for the first time consider how to counteract the use of technology in abusing women, including abuses such as mobile phone tracking devices and the threat of revenge porn. Senator Cash explains:
"You've had photos taken of you while you're in your relationship, and then the perpetrator has those photos and then blackmails you, and says 'if you don't do this, I'll release those photos'…COAG is also for the first time ever going to be looking at how we tackle those issues of online safety but also ensuring victims of abuse have adequate legal protections in place."
Delay
Despite previous promises from Prime Minister Abbott that the scheme will roll out before the end of 2015, Senator Cash has come out and said that while the legal framework is set to be agreed to nationally by December 2015, the system to actually share information on active DVOs between jurisdictions will take longer. Its roll-out will depend on the outcome of a $3.3 million pilot program by Crimtrac involving Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania, which is due to report back by 2016.
Senator Cash is determined to get the system right:
"We need to ensure that the jurisdictions do what they need to do so that going forward the scheme is properly in place and that's what we're focussed on."
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