Service providers like Starick and the Women’s Council have welcomed the Labor Party’s proposed laws to toughen up laws surrounding domestic violence but Attorney General Michael Mischin isn’t convinced.
The private member’s bill, developed by Member for Armadale Tony Buti, would increase maximum penalty breaches of violence restraining orders to three years imprisonment and increase imprisonment for unlawful assault causing death.
It could also see domestic violence incidents noted on an offender’s record rather than just the crime itself as is currently done.
Victims of domestic violence will also be regarded as special witnesses enabling better access to support and protection while giving evidence in court.
Dr Buti said the laws increase accountability for the perpetrators and sought to provide more protection for victims.
Starick offers refuges for victims of domestic violence throughout the southeast and chief executive Leanne Barron welcomed the proposed changes.
“It would help to recognise where men have a pattern of violence with one woman or over multiple partners,” she said.
“Because those behaviours can be really entrenched and women can be at risk and not realise the level of risk they’re facing.”
She said the debate around how to tackle domestic violence should not become politicised.
“We’ve been waiting for these changes for a long time, as a service provider there’s urgency around them, we want to see them implemented and I think the community wants that as well,” she said.
“They see this issue as increasingly serious so it’s important that it’s not played for politics, that people have at the forefront of their minds at the level of risk that women and children are at and they act on that basis.”
Mr Mischin said the opposition’s approach was ‘simplistic’.
“Apart from the potential problems apparent in the detail of the what the (opposition’s) bill proposes, upon which I am obtaining advice, it does nothing that will address the problem of domestic violence, and not much that is not available in the justice system already,” he said.
“The Government’s anti-violence and restraining orders reforms, which are currently being drafted and undergoing the necessary consultation process, will go much further than the opposition proposes in re-aligning the means by which courts, law enforcement authorities and support agencies deal with domestic violence.”
