Page 2015 - Week 07 - Thursday, 24 June 2021
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The government is committed to ensuring that perpetrators of domestic and family violence are held to account and is progressing amendments in a phased approach to address the issue identified in R v UG. A phased approach is being taken to fully address the complexities around ensuring family violence legislation provides the greatest protection possible for victims and appropriate consequences for offenders, recognising the need for a nuanced response given the nature of family violence itself, and family violence offences.
I note that on 10 May this year the shadow attorney-general, Ms Lee, released her own draft amendments to progress a reform of this type for public consultation. I look forward to working with Ms Lee and other members to ensure we arrive at the most effective and well-supported approach to sentencing for family violence offences. There is no single best approach to achieving the shared aim of preventing family violence, which is why we need to work with the community and develop the regime.
The amendments to the Crimes (Sentencing) Act contained in this bill are the first phase of amendments to address the need to recognise the severity of family violence offences. The amendments create new section 34B which mandates that the court must consider certain factors when sentencing for a family violence offence. The insertion of new section 34B as a separate sentencing consideration in addition to the factors outlined at existing section 33 of the act is not intended to reduce a judicial officer’s discretion when considering sentencing factors but to ensure they are required, when sentencing for family violence offences, to consider additional factors as part of the sentencing process.
The factors that must be considered are: firstly, the matters mentioned in the preamble to the Family Violence Act 2016, recognising the features of family violence, including that it extends beyond physical violence and may involve exploitation of power imbalances, and that children exposed to family violence are particularly vulnerable to the consequences of that exposure; secondly, whether the offending occurred at the home of the victim, the offender or another person; thirdly, whether the offending occurred when a child was present; fourthly, if the offence was a serious family violence offence, whether the offender has any previous convictions for serious family violence offences.
The operation of the new provisions will be monitored to ensure they are operating as expected. I take this opportunity to advise the Assembly on the detail that government is considering options for phase 2, recognising strong support from community stakeholders for an aggravated offence approach. This is more complex as it represents a material change to the way in which sentencing law currently operates in the ACT, requires further input from stakeholders on exactly the right form of the approach given the potential for family violence to be involved in any number of offences, it may have resourcing implications for justice agencies including for ACT Corrective Services, and raises more complex human rights issues which would need to be addressed to ensure the reforms are compatible with the Human Rights Act 2004. I look forward to presenting that bill later to further the government’s measures to ensure our courts have every tool available to prevent family violence.
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