Crimes (Domestic and Personal Violence) Amendment (National Domestic Violence Orders Recognition) Act 2016
Friday 29 April 2016 @ 11.44 a.m. | Crime
The New South Wales Government has enacted model laws that would hold domestic violence perpetrators accountable nationwide. Under the Crimes (Domestic and Personal Violence) Amendment (National Domestic Violence Orders Recognition) Act 2016, assented on the 15 April 2016, domestic violence offenders cannot escape the law by moving interstate.
The Act will mean that Domestic Violence Orders (DVO) will be automatically recognised and enforced across states and territories. New South Wales Attorney General Gabrielle Upton explained that this scheme would improve information sharing between the States and better protect victims who move interstate. She urges other States and Territories to follow NSW’s lead and introduce laws of the same nature.
Background to the Act
Prior to the Act, a domestic violence victim who wishes to protect themselves using a DVO but travels interstate must appear before that State’s court to have the order recognised. But the new model laws introduced by NSW means that an order issued by one State or Territory will be recognised across all of Australia. Ms Upton stressed that the scheme needed the cooperation of all the jurisdictions involved to bring in the laws in order for the system to work.
"The laws need to be adopted by all the other states and territories to make this national system work and that's why I call on them, all states and territories to do what NSW is doing in adopting these model laws, because it will be then that a victim in one state will have all the protections go with them when they travel interstate.”
The DVO recognition scheme introduced in NSW was proposed by the Council of Australian Governments in December 2015. COAG agreed that each State and Territory would introduce model laws to automatically recognise and enforce Domestic Violence Orders across Australia, including New Zealand orders registered in Australia by July 2016.
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Sources:
Crimes (Domestic and Personal Violence) Amendment (National Domestic Violence Orders Recognition) Act 2016, as published on LawOne
NSW leads Australia on National Domestic Violence Order Scheme
New domestic violence laws introduced in NSW to recognise DVOs across Australia
