20 September 2017

, Acting Attorney-General

Better protection for family violence victims

Family violence offenders will be electronically monitored for the first time in Tasmania under new laws that were tabled in parliament yesterday.

The Family Violence Amendment Bill 2017 will better protect women and children from family violence offenders and was developed following consultation earlier this year.

Eliminating family violence is a top priority for the Hodgman Liberal Government which is why we announced a nation-leading $26 million Family Violence Action Plan in 2015 to address this scourge.

The reforms will add to this important work by:

• introducing electronic monitoring of family violence perpetrators;
• providing that a person protected by a protection order cannot be charged with instigating, abetting, or aiding the breach of their order unless the conduct resulted in another protected person named in the order (such as an affected child) being placed at risk;
• providing that discontinued matters where an acquittal is entered as a result of no evidence being tendered may be admissible as relationship, tendency or coincidence evidence in the family violence context.

Living free from violence is everyone’s right and family violence is totally unacceptable, and this will send the appropriate message that family violence will not be tolerated in Tasmania.

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