Mischief in the Family Law Act

Domestic violence is a behaviour whereby abusers use a variety of strategies to control and dominate their victims. The broadening of the definition of domestic violence will not identify it where it does not exist any more than a cancer can be diagnosed merely by one or two symptoms such as a decrease in body weight and a loss of appetite. The expanded definition includes circumstances where a child has been exposed to domestic violence and a range of behaviours such as financial abuse or social isolation.

The broadening of the definition will instead alert the Court to the 'red flags' that will indicate the need to examine the history of the family more closely much like the cumulative increase in various atypical symptoms may alert the doctor to cancer. No reasonable person would insist that doctors are not in a position to properly or adequately interpret the nature and extent of the symptoms to a possible disease. In the same way, judges are not so naive, unintelligent, bereft of life experience or ignorant of legal evidence principles that a finding of violence will occur where there is no corroborating history of its tactics.

Domestic violence in cases before the Family Court is the tip of the proverbial iceberg in Australia today. The recent murders in the family of Kayla Rogers are cases in point and exemplary of the fallout when abusers kill because they will not release their control over their "loved ones." Family law must be better placed to respond to the needs of victims of family violence by expanding the definition to better identify not only abusers, but more importantly- the victims.

As these families approach the court, the law must be better placed to identify the potential risks that at best affects the psychological, social and financial well being of the victims, but at worst can be lethal. Having children thrown off bridges, suffocated with pillows, driven into trees, or raped and killed must not be allowed to happen when the court has made an order, by consent or otherwise, that results in the opportunity for any parent to kill the children and or the other parent. Victims like Kayla and her mother, who attempted to escape domestic violence from the person who was obligated to protect not kill them, must not fall through the law's gaps if they appear at the Family Court.

In 2003 Australia's leading experts in family law, the Family Law Council stated that, "There is no greater problem in family law today than the problems of adequately addressing child protection concerns in proceedings under the Family Law Act". The policies and legislative changes in response to the child protection concerns must be formulated by the evidence from the sources without a private agenda, not those who claim to speak for those that claim they "didn't do it." The fact that children are being killed by a parent in Australia is bad enough. That this happens after a child has been made available to the parent under a Family Court order is unacceptable.