Page 1132 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 28 March 2017
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easier for people, when dealing with domestic violence, to access the courts, and it makes the job of the courts, legal professionals and community organisations easier.
Today’s bill is the result of the consultation with the legal professionals who represent vulnerable people, the courts they appear before, the government and community service providers. This package of legislation builds on their insights into how the legal process can better serve and protect our vulnerable people. These reforms will help to build a safer, stronger and more connected city.
The Family Violence Act 2016 and the Personal Violence Act 2016 were both introduced in 2016 to improve the court process for seeking protection. Those acts took up recommendations of the New South Wales Law Reform Commission’s report, which was titled Family Violence—A National Legal Response. They were passed unanimously by this Assembly. At the time, members of the Eighth Assembly discussed the need for legislation and the people it would most help. Our now Deputy Chief Minister said in support of those bills:
The voices of women with disabilities affected by violence are both too rarely heard in our community and too often heard by the people they report to.
She gave the example of Rebecca, a young woman with a disability who faced domestic violence. In Rebecca’s case, it was a challenge to get people to believe that her able-bodied partner had been committing acts of domestic violence. As Minister Berry stated then, these stories are too common, and it is important that our legal system improves its response.
Since the family violence and personal violence acts were passed, this government has continued to work with the community to identify further improvements. Based on that work, this bill will improve the ability of our courts to respond to domestic and personal violence in a number of significant ways, including making it easier for family violence victims to obtain family violence orders without being required to retell their stories, and enhancing protections for children and for people with disabilities.
When I introduced this bill in February, I discussed in detail the reforms that will prevent victims of family violence having to retell their stories in family violence order proceedings. The reforms will allow recordings taken for criminal matters to be used in support of a victim’s application for a family violence order. Under the current provisions, victims are unable to do this, as they would be committing an offence if they played their recording in family violence order proceedings. But each retelling of the experience can re-traumatise the victim.
The amendments ensure that the use of recordings is permitted, but only in situations where the victim is the applicant and the alleged offender is the respondent to the protection order. This means that recordings will be used to facilitate seeking protection orders, not for some other purpose detrimental to the victim. These amendments will assist victims of family violence to obtain family violence orders without being required to retell their experience in order to access protection.
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