Page 2282 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 5 August 2015
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The criminal justice system is really about the perpetrator of the crime not the victims … Having someone specialised starts to shift focus to victim welfare space.
That is a very important point. We want the legal system, the court system, when it comes to domestic violence, to be focused on what is best for the victim, not necessarily what is in the court and certainly not what is best for the perpetrator. We really want to put the victims of domestic violence, in most cases women, at the centre of the system.
The women’s legal centre executive director Elena Rosenman said the specialised court would “signify clearly that as a society we value the safety of women and their children”. She said specialised courts went hand in hand with specialised legal assistance services. I quote:
Currently at the Centre we see many women who have been through the process of applying for a domestic violence order or related family law matters with no legal support while the perpetrator has been able to secure legal assistance …
In other Australian jurisdictions, magistrates and judicial officers dealing with family violence matters undergo specialised training, a measure Ms Wilson and Mr Hinchey would like to see introduced in the ACT. I will refer to a recent article. On 3 August 2015, the Courier Mail reported:
QUEENSLAND’S Chief Magistrate is launching … specialist magistrates tasked with tackling Queensland’s family abuse shame and giving victims a greater voice in court.
Describing family violence as a “horrendous blight on the community’’, Judge Ray Rinaudo said:
… specially trained magistrates would deal with more complicated cases wherever they were across the state.
The article said:
The Not Now, Not Ever report, handed down earlier this year—
in Queensland—
recommended widespread changes to the way domestic violence victims and their cases were treated by the courts.
The report found many victims did not believe their cases were taken seriously by police or magistrates and “some felt their safety was not prioritised”.
It found some victims were waiting up to six weeks between when an application for an urgent protection order was filed and when it was heard.
Southport will trial the scheme. It grappled with 2800 abuse cases last year, while Beenleigh had 2000 and Brisbane Central 1700.
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