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Former Australian of the Year Rosie Batty has partnered with women’s legal services across Australia to urge the federal government to enact reforms to keep women and children safe in the family law system.

Ms Batty, who was driven to campaign to end family violence after her 11-year-old son was murdered by her former partner, yesterday endorsed the new Safety First in Family Law plan, launched by Women’s Legal Services Australia.

Safety First comprises a five-point plan, advocating that the federal government: strengthen family violence response in the family law system, provide effective legal help for the most disadvantaged, ensure family law professionals have real understanding of family violence, increase access to safe dispute resolution models and overcome the gaps between the family law, family violence and child protection systems.

The plan “can be implemented right now, and is based on research, evidence and key recommendations from previous family law inquiries”, the partnership noted in a statement.

Ms Batty said it was critical for the government to act now to reform the family law system.

“Nearly 70 percent of matters lodged in the family courts involve allegations of family violence, but the system is not set up to deal with this – and neither are the many professionals who work within the system,” she said.

“The family courts don’t have case management processes specifically designed for family violence cases, so safety risks are not being managed. This is putting women and children at grave risk.”

WLSA spokesperson Helen Matthews added that the government needed to show its commitment to ending violence against women, and that one step that could be taken in achieving this would be to implement the reform plan developed by specialist women’s legal services around Australia.

“Women’s legal services across Australia work on the frontline to represent family violence victim survivors – we know just how urgent these reforms are, and how the current family law system is failing women and children,” she said.

“These reforms can and should be implemented now. If the government is serious about making the family law system safe for women and children, it must act and implement our recommendations”.

By Jerome Doraisamy|23 October 2019

PREVALENCE OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Source: 2016 Personal Safety Survey (ABS, 2017)

ANROWS has analysed the statistics related to women and personal violence.  It tells us a lot about the relationship between men and women.

Since the age of 15:
• Approximately one in four women (23% or 2.2 million) has experienced at least one incident of violence by an intimate partner (intimate partner = a current or previous partner with whom the respondent lives or has lived, or a current or former boyfriend, girlfriend or date with whom the respondent has not lived with).
• One in six women (17% or 1.6 million) has experienced at least one incident of violence by a partner (partner = a person whom the respondent lives with, or lived with at some point, in a married or de facto relationship).
• Three in ten women (30.5% or 2.85 million) have experienced physical violence (perpetrated by another person, irrespective of the type of relationship).
• Approximately one in five women (18% or 1.7 million) has experienced sexual violence (the occurrence, attempt or threat of sexual assault).
• One in six women (17% or 1.6 million) has experienced an episode of stalking (any unwanted contact or attention on more than one occasion, or multiple types of unwanted contact or behaviour experienced on one occasion, that could have caused fear or distress).
• Approximately one in four women (23% or 2.2 million) has experienced emotional abuse by a partner.

Across their lifetime:
• One in two women (53% or 5 million) has experienced sexual harassment
(experienced or has been subjected to one or more selected behaviours which they found improper or unwanted, which made them feel uncomfortable, and/or were offensive due to their sexual nature)

Some people see a midlife crisis when people’s satisfaction in life declines with the loss of youth. I don’t think so. The article below makes the case that for many people, satisfaction increases with age. We are all different with different circumstances, but it seems there is hope for all of us.