In October 2016, the Victorian Parliament passed the National Domestic Violence Order Scheme Act 2016. This gives effect to an agreement made by Australian Governments in December 2015 to pass model laws to establish a National Domestic Violence Order Scheme. This is a first step towards establishing this scheme.
To support the implementation of the National Domestic Violence Order Scheme, Australian governments also agreed to develop a comprehensive national information sharing system for domestic violence orders, also known as the National Order Reference System.
The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission is developing the National Order Reference System, which will take up to four years to deliver.
A single database for family violence, Child Protection and family law orders will be progressed by the Attorney-General drawing the recommendation to the attention of other Australian governments through the Law, Crime and Community Safety Council.
Additionally, Family Safety Victoria is leading the redevelopment of the Victorian Family Violence Risk Assessment and Risk Management Framework.
In August 2016, the Premier wrote to the Prime Minister proposing to raise recommendations from the Royal Commission into Family Violence at the forthcoming Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting, including this recommendation.
In addition, the Premier led a delegation of experts from the Victorian family violence sector to attend the COAG Summit on reducing violence against women and children, held on 28 October 2016 in Brisbane.
At the Summit, the Premier advocated for national reform on family violence, including to the Family Law Act 1975. COAG agreed that the national actions recommended by the Royal Commission into Family Violence would be on the agenda at the December COAG meeting. This includes Recommendation 134.
The Premier brought a paper to COAG in December 2016 pursuing this recommendation. COAG agreed to task the Law Crime and Community Safety Council (LCCSC) with considering options for implementing an information sharing regime and developing a national family violence risk assessment framework.
On 19 May 2017, LCCSC agreed to establish a working group of justice officials to develop measures to improve the interaction between the federal family law, and state child protection and family violence systems. Topics for the family violence working group to consider include:
- information sharing between the family law, family violence, and child protection systems
- risk identification and assessment in the justice system
- proposed amendments to the Family Law Act contained in the Exposure Draft of the Family Law Amendment (Family Violence and Other Measures) Bill 2017
- legislative and other protections for vulnerable witnesses in family law and family violence matters, and improving family violence competency for professionals working in the family law and family violence systems