Page 552 - Week 02 - Thursday, 16 February 2017
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documents under the acts at or near their school, and require the child’s parent to be provided with a copy of any documents.
It is crucial that our domestic and family legislation takes account of the needs of the children involved. In these complex matters, children can be the subject of family court proceedings, witnesses to abuse of their parents, witnesses to abuse of their siblings, and victims of crimes themselves. In every interaction with the justice system, the independent and special needs of the child involved must be paramount. A society is measured by the way it treats its most vulnerable. This bill has been drafted with a focus on the child across domestic and family violence legislation, because we are determined to measure up.
The second focus of this bill is additional protection for people with impaired decision-making ability. It is sadly the case that people with disabilities, and particularly with impaired decision-making abilities, are at an elevated risk of being victims of domestic violence. One example of how this bill addresses disability and impaired decision-making is requiring a copy of any documents served in relation to a domestic or family violence order to be given to a person’s guardian. This means that a guardian will be made aware of any application to ensure that they can explain the documents and provide assistance to the person with the impaired decision-making ability. This government is determined to ensure both that people who are vulnerable in our society are best protected and that the overall court system undergoes continual improvement.
This bill has amendments that will help victims avoid having to re-tell what has happened to them over and over. Every time a victim of domestic and family violence has to recount what has happened, there is the potential for reliving the trauma that has occurred. For that reason, under current law a recorded statement can be used as evidence in a criminal trial for domestic and family violence cases as a substitute for the victim going to court and restating what happened. For obvious reasons, the law prohibits those recordings from being published outside the court. The purpose of the restriction is to stop offenders or anyone else from accessing these deeply personal recordings and using them improperly.
However, the law as it stands means that even the victim who made the recording cannot use it as evidence in support of a domestic violence order. Frequently, when there have been criminal charges laid in relation to domestic violence the victim will separately ask the court for a protection order. But a protection order is not part of the criminal case.
This bill introduces a change to allow people who are the victim of a crime to use their recordings in support of their application for a protection order. This means that when a court considers making a domestic violence protection order it can hear the same recorded statement by the person who needs protection that is available in the criminal trial. The change means that the victims of domestic violence have one fewer requirement to re-tell what has happened, and consequently there is less scope for forcing them to relive the trauma of the abuse.
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