Related Publications
Family violence laws fail Indigenous victims
1 March 2006
Victoria needs new legislation and a new approach to better protect victims of family violence, especially Indigenous Australians, immigrants and people with disabilities the state’s Law Reform Commission said today.
“We have released a report that makes 153 recommendations to better protect victims of family violence by introducing a new Act, improving police and court processes, and updating education and training,” Law Reform Commissioner Judith Peirce said.
“Indigenous women face particular barriers to using the intervention order system, which is an extremely serious problem seeing Indigenous Victorians are eight times more likely to experience family violence than non-Indigenous Victorians.
“We have recommended that a new Act should include new definitions of family violence and family member that are inclusive of Indigenous Australians’ experiences.
“A new definition of family violence should be broad enough to cover abuse specific to certain groups in the community, and the definition of family member should include a relative according to Indigenous tradition or contemporary social practice.
“Many Indigenous Australians feel uncomfortable around police and courts because of past experiences of racism and incarceration. To help counter this we have recommended:
• that police and court staff be trained in cultural awareness and the barriers to justice experienced by Indigenous people;
• more funding for community agencies to help Indigenous victims apply for intervention orders;
• more community information sessions about family violence, the law and Indigenous people in rural and regional areas;
• More Indigenous Australians should be trained as court registrars and the courts should employ more Indigenous people as registrars;
• Further research into the use of restorative justice practices in family violence cases, such as cooling-off centres or circle sentencing.”