1 June 2023
The Territory Labor Government's plans to improve its justice response to domestic and family violence are now open for review, with a DFV Exposure Draft Bill now online.
The Justice Legislation (Domestic and Family Violence) Bill 2023 modernises, restructures, and strengthens the Domestic and Family Violence Act 2007 to bring it into line with best practices, and address inconsistencies in the current Act.
The reforms provide a more consistent and specialised focus on victim safety and offender accountability to help reduce the cycle of violence; and provide better protection for domestic and family violence victims, particularly women and children.
The Bill includes a definition of coercive control, enabling Courts to consider the concept as part of DVO applications and when considering a breach of a DVO.
Other key features of the Bill include:
measures to address the misidentification of parties - requiring the Police to produce Police Certificates for Police DVO applications, and where requested for Court DVO applications, that outline the history of DFV between the parties;greater and stronger protection for victim survivors - including broadening and modernising definitions, more prescriptive arrangements for premises access orders, and extending the default expiration period for DVOs.greater and more consistent offender accountability - including new provisions prohibiting attempts to locate protected persons and requiring offenders to destroy intimate images of the protected person; andimproved clarity and scope for Courts and Police powers - including more comprehensive matters to be considered when making a DVO, greater flexibility for making interim DVOs and requiring the conditions of DVOs to be explained to the protected person and the offender.
There was broad public consultation on proposed legislative and systems changes last year, which included services providers, police, courts, and people with lived experience as victim-survivors of domestic and family violence. This process informed the draft Bill.
The Exposure Draft - Justice Legislation Amendment (Domestic and Family Violence) Bill 2023 is now available here here until 22 August 2023.
Quotes attributable to Attorney General and Minister for Justice Chansey Paech:
"The Territory Labor Government is ensuring the justice response to domestic and family violence improves the safety of victim-survivors and holds people who use violence to account.
"We continue to modernise our legislation to keep it contemporary and ensure it reflects best practice and that's why we're releasing an exposure draft Bill for feedback from people with expertise on domestic and family violence, including those with lived experience."
Quotes attributable to Minister for the Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Kate Worden:
"Improving the justice response to domestic and family violence is a high priority for our Government because we are determined to come to grips with this scourge that negatively impacts our people and our communities.
"This Bill builds on our Government's commitment under the NT Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Reduction Framework to reduce all forms of domestic, family and sexual violence."
