Amend the Infringement Act (2006) to include special circumstances for persons experiencing family violence

This recommendation is closely related to the work for Recommendation 112, which involves addressing the circumstance where victim survivors remain liable for infringement penalties even when they did not commit the offending. As part of our approach, the Department of Justice and Regulation will work on these recommendations simultaneously to create a holistic approach for the justice system to interact with victim survivors with infringements in their name.

Our work on this recommendation involves:

• developing a case file management framework for the infringements system to deal with the intersection between the infringements and family violence systems
• developing the legislative proposal and consultation paper
• undertaking consultation with stakeholders through existing justice processes, including the Chief Magistrate’s Family Violence Taskforce
• developing the legislation through the usual legislative drafting processes

This recommendation was implemented on 1 July 2017 with an amendment to the definition of ‘special circumstances’ in the Infringements Act 2006 to recognise the experience of family violence.

The family violence scheme established as part of recommendation 112 also addresses the Royal Commissions concerns by reforming the way the justice system supports victim survivors resolve infringements.

Implemented.