Page 992 - Week 04 - Thursday, 18 June 1992
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court has granted. The possibility that such an order may be registered in any jurisdiction within Australia and thus become enforceable within that jurisdiction is included in the list of matters that the court is required to explain to a respondent present at the hearing of any application for a protection order. The Bill also makes amendments to the forms used for making restraining orders under the Magistrates Court Act and protection orders under the Domestic Violence Act, to ensure that the respondent is informed of the possibility of registration and enforceability in another State or Territory where reciprocal legislation is in place.
Secondly, the Bill clarifies a point that had arisen as a consequence of an alleged attack on a woman by her husband while she was holidaying on the south coast. Both persons were residents of the ACT. The woman had allegedly taken out a protection order in the ACT Magistrates Court which was still in force at the time of the attack. The point in dispute was whether the order could be enforced upon her alleged attacker's re-entry into the ACT. The Director of Public Prosecutions and the Government Solicitor's Office both concluded that the legislation, as it stood, did not permit any action to be taken against the man. The Bill amends both Acts by ensuring that a breach of an ACT protection order interstate is capable of being enforced when the offender returns to the Territory, thus guaranteeing at least that Territory women who are assaulted while outside the Territory by a person who is a resident of this Territory can be given protection even in the absence of uniform introduction of this scheme.
The Bill also makes minor amendments to the interpretation provisions of both Acts to ensure that the term "vary" includes adoption and modification, as well as an amendment to the definition of relative contained in the Domestic Violence Act to include stepbrother and stepsister. I commend the Bill to members of the Assembly and, Madam Speaker, I present the explanatory memorandum for the Bill.
Debate (on motion by Mr Humphries) adjourned.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE (AMENDMENT) BILL 1992
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (11.02): Madam Speaker, I present the Domestic Violence (Amendment) Bill 1992.
Title read by Clerk.
MR CONNOLLY: Madam Speaker, I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
The Domestic Violence (Amendment) Bill is one of two Bills which I am introducing today to address some urgent issues in relation to the prevention of domestic violence. The other Bill is the Crimes (Amendment) Bill. These Bills have been drafted on the recommendation of the ACT Community Law Reform Committee, which is currently considering my reference on domestic violence. The Domestic Violence (Amendment) Bill 1992 has arisen as a result of the application of the Commonwealth Privacy Act to the operations of the Australian Federal Police ACT Region and the Domestic Violence Crisis Service.
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