November 07, 2018
New laws change frame on family violence
The Under-Secretary to the Minister of Justice on Domestic and Sexual Violence Issues says new laws passed last night mark a significant shift in the way government responds.
Jan Logie says the Family Violence Act makes significant changes to the Domestic Violence Act 1995, including improving the way protection orders are handled and providing more opportunities for perpetrators and victims to be connected with the services and programmes they need.
The Family Violence (Amendments) Bill introduces three new offences: strangulation or suffocation, assault on a person in a family relationship, and coerced marriage or civil union.
The Green MP says it's important people can interpret what family violence is.
"This legislation tries to provide some clearer direction for the court about the dynamics of violence, that individual things might look small. When you put them together over time it adds up to a kind of controlling, coercive relationship that is in effect a prison. We have a duty to protect people from that dynamic," she says.
Ms Logie says witnessing family violence can have lifelong consequences for children.
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