For a Snapshot of the Latest Information on the Sector, Please See Below

Merry Christmas

e-Newsletter December 2017

Hi All,

Best wishes to everyone. I hope you and your families have a happy, peaceful and restful Christmas break, spent in a way that delights your heart.

For a snapshot of the latest information on the sector, please see below.:

National Domestic Violence Order Scheme

New laws have been introduced in each state and territory to improve the protection of domestic and family violence victims. From 25 November 2017 domestic violence orders (DVOs) issued in one state or territory will apply and be enforceable in all states and territories in Australia. Prior to 25 November 2017 DVOs applied only in the state or territory where they were issued. The forms are now available hereTo find out more about how the new laws will affect orders made both before and after November 25 please click on Courts Qld

The new database will be available to all police and court agencies to ensure that orders are enforceable even when victims or perpetrators move interstate. Minister for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, PruGoward stated, "Victims will only have to go through the process once [...and not worry] when they relocate". This is a significant development in the sector which should remedy some of the gaps under the previous state-exclusive system.

First meeting of the Council of Attorneys-General: Source –Attorney General: Media Release : 1 December

On December 1st, Attorneys-General across Australia attended the first meeting of the Council of Attorneys-General in Sydney. The Council of Attorneys-General replaces the Law, Crime and Community Safety Council meeting, with separate meetings now held for Attorneys-General and Ministers for Police and Emergency Management. This council meeting aimed to advance cooperative work and consider major national priorities including:

• Measures for the post-sentence preventative detention of high risk terrorist offenders;
• The Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment;
• Responses to recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse, in its Working With Children Checks report;
• Measures for treating people unfit to plead, or found not guilty by reason of mental impairment; and
• Protecting the rights of older Australians.

By working collaboratively, the Council of Attorneys-General has a unique opportunity to deliver important law reform initiatives to improve justice outcomes for Australians and New Zealanders.

Melbourne Federal Circuit Court Call Over Week: VFLPN December Bulletin: 4 December
Throughout the second last week of November, the Melbourne Federal Circuit Court successfully conducted a series of call over hearings. The process was undertaken at the initiative of the newly appointed Chief Justice John Pascoe, aiming to tackle the delays in the Courts. Some 300 matters were brought forward to test whether the parties might be able to reach agreement without the need to have a trial, and to manage the case in terms of expected duration and readiness to proceed to trial. The success of the week must be accredited to the service providers and staff within the Court who collaborated to ensure the smooth running of the call over process; a great effort by all involved.

Developments to strengthen systems for child protection across Australia: Sarah Wise: CFCA – AIFS: 8 Nov

Child protection systems are multidimensional, complex, continually adapting entities that seek to prevent and respond to protection-related risks. Systems for child protection in Australia today are facing significant challenges. This has created the imperative to go beyond incremental adjustments and aim for transformational change. This paper outlines the latest iteration of changes within Australian child protection systems. It draws on a survey completed by child protection departments across Australia on change and reform planned or underway since July 2010. Change is documented and compared in terms of child protection system principles, goals and components. Considerable changes to systems for protecting children are planned or underway right across Australia. These are being designed and implemented mainly in response to shortcomings identified in independent reviews. They aim to reduce the number of children involved in statutory child protection and out-of-home care (OOHC) and achieve greater permanence and improved outcomes for children who enter OOHC. Addressing the over-representation of Aboriginal children and families in all areas of the statutory child protection system, particularly the high number of Aboriginal children entering OOHC, is an area of particular focus for reform. You can download the Report and an additional Appendix at APO

Service Information

Crisis Support

Some emergency contact numbers for over the holiday period – with a wish that no-one will need them

Organisation / Contact Number / Service/Support Hours
Lifeline / 131 114 / 24/7 A free telephone counselling service.
Kid’s Helpline / 1800 551 800 / 24/7 A counselling service for kids and young people.
1800 RESPECT / 1800 737 732 / 24/7 National sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling service.
Child Abuse Prevention Service / 1800 688 009 / 24/7 Family support, abuse prevention and community education services.
MensLine Australia / 1300 789 978 / 24/7 Counselling and resources for men in crisis.
The Salvation Army / 1300 363 622 / 24/7 Salvos telephone counselling service.
The Line / 1800 MYLINE
(1800 695 463) / 24/7 Support for young people in relationships.
SIDS and Kids / 1300 308 307 / 24/7 Information for parents about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

13health 13 43 25 84 24/7 Confidential health advice from a registered nurse (for Queenslanders).

SES132 500 24/7 Assistance for flood or storm emergency or you can lodge your request for assistance onlinehere.

Triple Zero (000)OOO 24/7 Police, fire or ambulance services. Call Triple Zero only in serious or life-threatening situations.

Poisons Information Centre 13 11 26 24/7Prompt and up-to-date advice to assist in the management of poisonings.

DVConnect/Wommensline1800 811 81124/7Assistance, counselling, intervention, transport & emergency accommodation for women & families in DV Sexual Assault Helpline.1800 010 12024/7Telephone support and counselling toanyone– women, men and young people

Child Safety After Hours Service Centre Ph: 1800 177 135 (24 hours) or call the police 000 if you believe a child is in immediate danger.

Christmas Closures

Red Crossoffices and services will be closed from COB Friday 22 December 2017 and reopen on Tuesday 2 January 2018.

Relationships Australia Qld offices in Gladstone, Rockhampton and Longreach will be closed from 23 December up to and including 1 January 2018. During this time an alternative contact point for Clients and Sector Colleagues is 1300 364 277.

Girls Time Out – Young Women’s Support Service Inc. would like to advise that our office will be closed from 12noon Friday 22 December 2017 and will re-open at 9am on Tuesday 2 January 2018. An on call service will be available during the closure period.

News

Young Australian couch surfers slipping through the cracks:Norman Hermant and Rebecca Armitage :ABC: 24 November

Rhys was 16 years old when his life at home become too much to take. The conflict was getting worse and he was scared. "It was a very scary time," said Rhys, now 23. "Being at home was not safe for me. Being a teenager, I'd go to school, I'd come home, I'd go to my mates... whenever I returned home I just didn't feel safe." He fled and went to the only place he could find — the couch at a mate's house. His friend's parents agreed to let him stay and it was the beginning of four years in couch surfing limbo, moving every two to four months, and trying to keep his life on track. “It's one of the most terrifying things I've ever had to experience," he said. "You never know where you're going, where you're staying, how long it is, how you're going to get by. It's incredibly intimidating." One of the most comprehensive reports ever on couch surfing in Australia has found many young people living informally out of home are falling through the gaps. "Young people are not yet considered adults, but they're not given the same protection as children," said Shorna Moore, the author of the report called Couch Surfing Limbo. To read the complete article, please click on ABC

Australia should be cautious about introducing laws on coercive control to stem domesticviolence: Kate Fitz-Gibbon; Jude McCulloch;Sandra Walklate: The Conversation : 27 November

Numerous Australian reviews – including Victoria’s Royal Commission into Family Violence and Queensland’s Not Now, Not Ever Report – have documented the failure of the criminal law to provide justice for victims of intimate partner violence. A common question emerging from these reviews has been: how valuable is the introduction of new legal categories as a way of improving responses to intimate partner violence? Drawing on the English experience in introducing the offence of coercive control, we dissect this question. In doing so, we urge caution to those Australian jurisdictions contemplating a move in this direction. The English offence of coercive and controlling behaviour In 2015, a new offence of “controlling or coercive behaviour” was introduced in England and Wales. Section 76 of the Serious Crime Act 2015 states that a person commits coercive control if:

• A repeatedly or continuously engages in behaviour towards another person
• B) that is controlling or coercive; b) At the time of the behaviour, A and B are personally connected;
• The behaviour has a serious effect on B; and
• A knows or ought to know that the behaviour will have a serious effect on B.

The offence, as legally defined, is gender-neutral and limited to behaviour between persons in a current intimate relationship. It covers a wide range of behaviours and draws directly on the work of American sociologist and forensic social worker Evan Stark. There have been varied responses to the introduction of this offence. While it is not yet possible to evaluate empirically its implementation, given the limited case law to date, it is possible to set out the likely gaps between the intention of the legislation – to better prevent and respond to violence against women – and its impact in practice.

Reflecting on the UK experience, our recently published research explores why a new offence may not necessarily improve legal responses to intimate partner violence. To read the complete article, please click on The Conversation

Family violence victims at risk from Coalition's rent deduction scheme, advocates say:Christopher Knaus : The Guardian: 7 December

Welfare advocates say plan could make it more difficult for victims to leave violent relationships

A plan to automatically dock the welfare payments of social housing tenants to pay for rent and property damage could harm victims of family violence and make it more difficult for them to leave violent relationships, advocates have warned. The Coalition announced its intention to create an automatic rent deduction scheme earlier this year, which would allow social housing organisations to strip a person’s welfare to pay for rent, utilities, or damage to the property. The government said the scheme, due to begin in March, would help prevent homelessness by ensuring tenants were not evicted for non-payment. It cited figures from 2013-14 showing more than 8,900 social housing households owed more than three weeks of rent. The bill is currently before the Senate but a committee on Wednesday evening urged for amendments to protect vulnerable groups. Welfare advocates have already slammed the plan, saying it would have unintended consequences. The National Social Security Rights Network said it would make it more difficult for victims of family violence to easily leave abusive partners. The network said women who need to leave property quickly may not have the time to terminate the lease or notify authorities, and would be therefore liable to have their rent automatically deducted. The average cost of leaving a violent relationship is $18,000, according to the Australian Council of Trade Unions, and losing part of an already meagre welfare payment to rent could make that unaffordable. To read the complete article, please click on The Guardian

'If men respected certain boundaries, we would see less violence against women' Amal Ben Hadda and Johanna Higgs: The Guardian: 18 December

They agree on many things but the issue of sexual freedom and who gets to exercise it divides two friends from different cultural backgrounds

Johanna: Amal and I met on a trip to Morocco when I was visiting the city of Casablanca. I come from Australia, a western country, and Amal grew up in Morocco, which is a traditional Muslim country. Even with incredibly different cultural backgrounds, we share many beliefs, especially when it comes to bringing to an end harmful acts of violence against women, like sexual harassment. We decided that we wanted to write together and share our thoughts on the shared difficulties that we have faced as women and where we both want to see change. While I argued sexual freedom is essential for improving women’s rights, Amal had a different perspective and thought that more sexual freedom would only lead to more male irresponsibility. My question to Amal is, why is sex outside of marriage considered such a terrible thing?

Amal: In Morocco, we are not supposed to have sexual freedom yet men have more sexual freedom then women. Sex outside marriage is considered a terrible thing only for women. Some men justify their right to sexual freedom based on the fact that they are born male. For them, women are supposed to keep their chastity and should hold higher ethical standards than men. If a woman has sex outside of marriage this often results in women, very unfairly, being rejected by their family members while men are not made to take any responsibility for their actions. Some traditional families consider having sex outside of marriage by their female relatives a dishonour for the family. This gives men more freedom to have sex outside of marriage but also to insult and stigmatise women who do the same. To read the complete article, please click on The Guardian

Children of the North:Belinda Hawkins: ABC Australian Story

Aboriginal children in Victoria are 15 times more likely to be removed from their families than non-Indigenous children, but a Melbourne court is trying to turn things around by putting culture and family back in focus.

Ash Morris was just 24 when he was tasked with setting up Australia's first Aboriginal child protection court in Melbourne's outer north, where ice, gambling and family violence are rife in parts. With short hair, a collared shirt and smart leather shoes, Ash blends in with the lawyers at the Broadmeadows Children's Court, and yet he does not have a university degree. Until now, his only legal experience was in criminal court administration. "I never really ever wanted to work in child protection because it's such a close, touchy subject for Aboriginal families," Ash says. Record high numbers of Aboriginal children are coming through courts and being sent to live in out-of-home care. Victorian Aboriginal children are 15 times more likely to be removed from their families than non-Indigenous children — the second highest rate in Australia, behind Western Australia. Aboriginal on his father's side, Ash knows something needs to change. "Not all kids can go home and that's life. "But wherever kids grow up, they need to grow up strong on who they are and where they fit in with a connection to their family." Soon after he was appointed in early 2016, Ash hit the phone to pick as many brains as he could. Inspiration came from an unlikely source Lisa Thorpe operates an Aboriginal-run early learning and family well-being centre in Melbourne's north for Aboriginal children. Finger-painting and playtime might seem to be light years away from the earnest work at court. But this is no ordinary daycare-cum-kinder. Of the 75 families using BubupWilam, 75 per cent are considered "high risk" and 90 per cent are affected by family violence. "For some of these children it has been their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents," Lisa says. "They've just always been in that cycle of going through the system." To read the complete article please see Australian Story

Court Decisions of Interest

Appeals Court Judgements

Van HousenAnalka (No. 2) [2017] FamCAFC 252 22 Nov 2017

NOTE: The period for seeking special leave to appeal to the High Court has not expired.

FAMILY LAW – APPEAL – PARENTING – Where the primary judge dismissed the mother’s application for relocation and made orders as to the time the child would spend with the father – Whether her Honour erred in her approach to the competing proposals – Where her Honour did not fail to evaluate the competing proposals – Where neither party suggested that orders for substantial and significant time in Australia were not reasonably practicable – Whether her Honour erred by making an order that overnight time commence before the child turned three when neither party sought such an order – Where this order was stayed pending resolution of the appeal and had no effect – Where her Honour’s order was supported by the evidence – No appealable error established.