Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Top End Women’s Legal Service CEO Caitlin Weatherby-Fell has welcomed proposed reforms to the justice response to domestic violence in the Territory

Transcript

Top End Women’s Legal Service CEO Caitlin Weatherby-Fell has welcomed proposed reforms to the justice response to domestic violence in the Territory · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: I did make mention a little bit earlier this morning
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  Speaker 1: about the situation where we've had a pressure release come
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  Speaker 1: through from the Northern Territory government a little earlier today,
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  Speaker 1: just letting us know about these changes when it comes
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  Speaker 1: to domestic violence and providing the opportunity for Territorians to
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  Speaker 1: certainly have their say. So, the Northern Territory Labor governments
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  Speaker 1: say that they plan to improve their justice response to
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  Speaker 1: domestic and family violence and it's now open for review
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  Speaker 1: with the Domestic Family Violence Exposure Draft Bill now online.
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  Speaker 1: The government says the Justice Legislation Domestic Family Violence Bill modernizers,
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  Speaker 1: restructures and strengthens the Domestic and Family Violence Act of
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  Speaker 1: two thousand and seven to bring it in line with
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  Speaker 1: best practices and address inconsistencies in the current Act. Now
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  Speaker 1: joining me on the line to talk a little bit
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  Speaker 1: more about this review and well the various areas that
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  Speaker 1: we may need some further looking into. From the top end.
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  Speaker 1: Women's Legal US CEO Caitlin Weatherbee Fell, good morning to you, Caitlin.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Katie.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time this morning. Caitlyn.
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  Speaker 1: Obviously it seems like this is a step in the
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  Speaker 1: right direction. With the Domestic and Family Violence Exposure Draft
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  Speaker 1: Bill now open for comment, have you had much of
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  Speaker 1: an opportunity to have a look at exactly what the
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory government's proposing.
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  Speaker 2: No, not as yet. We've just the Sector has just
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  Speaker 2: received a copy of the bill which is eighty two
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  Speaker 2: pages this morning just before eight o'clock. So looking forward
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  Speaker 2: to making some time to go in depth on the
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  Speaker 2: Exposure Draft and certainly welcoming the nearly two and a
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  Speaker 2: half months turn around time for the discussion papering for feedback.
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  Speaker 1: So quite a bit of time to be able to
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  Speaker 1: provide that feedback and really go through it all, get
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  Speaker 1: through the the nuts and bolts of everything, because this
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  Speaker 1: is an area where we need to get it right,
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  Speaker 1: isn't it. Oh?
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, Domestic and family violence is across the Northern Territory
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  Speaker 2: every year for nearly I think three years. The unfortunately
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  Speaker 2: the Territory has warned the Crown under the ABS statistics
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  Speaker 2: for the highest rates of domestic, family and sexual violence.
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  Speaker 2: So the legislative supports around their fe are just so
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  Speaker 2: critical to ensuring that particularly women and their children are
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  Speaker 2: faith Now one of.
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  Speaker 1: The areas well, there's four areas by the look of
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  Speaker 1: things where they have said that the key features of
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  Speaker 1: the bill are they include measures to address the misidentification
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  Speaker 1: of parties, greater and stronger protection for victim survivors, as
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  Speaker 1: well as greater and more consistent offender accountability, and improve
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  Speaker 1: clarity and scope for courts and police powers. Caitlin, from
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  Speaker 1: your perspective with the top end women's Legal Service, you
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  Speaker 1: know how important and taking a look at those different
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  Speaker 1: sort of areas that they've touched upon, where do you
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  Speaker 1: think we need to see some change? So what does
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  Speaker 1: need to happen here?
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  Speaker 2: There absolutely needs to be greater and stronger protection for
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  Speaker 2: victim survivors, Katie. Currently women and their children are often
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  Speaker 2: involved in proceedings where there may not be the correct
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  Speaker 2: provisions in place for a domestic violence order, or where
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  Speaker 2: there's not been adequate information provided to the court during
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  Speaker 2: that problem. And certainly all of those four things actually
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  Speaker 2: interrelate to each other. So in respective misidentification of parties,
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  Speaker 2: we commonly at Women's Legal Service will see a misidentification
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  Speaker 2: of the primary aggressor and so police may attend upon
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  Speaker 2: a situation you will have an incredibly heightened I'll take
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  Speaker 2: into it I'll give the example here of a female
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  Speaker 2: and a male relationship, and noting that in terms of
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  Speaker 2: intimate partner violence, women are disproportionately impacted in terms of
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  Speaker 2: those experiences. But you'll have police attends. They'll attend upon
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  Speaker 2: a really heightened woman who is experiencing trauma, and because
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  Speaker 2: of that trauma, they say, oh, okay, this must be
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  Speaker 2: the person who's perpetrated the violence. She's the one who's tightened.
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  Speaker 2: She's the one kind of, you know, really distressed. It
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  Speaker 2: must have been her. And so these will certainly the
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  Speaker 2: changes that were up for response by the sector late
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  Speaker 2: last year. Our response was great. There needs to be
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  Speaker 2: really clear provisions, clear guidance within legislation to the judiciary
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  Speaker 2: around being able to make sure, okay, so who here
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  Speaker 2: is actually the primary aggressor instead of having a situation
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  Speaker 2: where you have two parties and the easiest outcome is
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  Speaker 2: for both parties to just have a DEDO respectively. That's
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  Speaker 2: not right. It's not right that a woman should be
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  Speaker 2: subject to a domestic violence order if she is the victim, survivor.
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  Speaker 1: Caitlin will there be other areas where you will certainly
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  Speaker 1: be advocating for or pushing for some change.
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  Speaker 2: We really welcome the inclusion of police certificates, which is
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  Speaker 2: around there being additional information to hand for the court
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  Speaker 2: and certainly around being to or informed for persons involved
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  Speaker 2: in domestic family sexual violence proceedings in not having to
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  Speaker 2: relay and replay their history. We're also really welcoming coercive
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  Speaker 2: control not being criminalized in the Northern Territory, which is
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  Speaker 2: something that is really debate across the country. But certainly
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  Speaker 2: the evidence before the territory is that if we were
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  Speaker 2: to criminalized course of control currently it would disproportionately impact
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  Speaker 2: women and particularly aborage andal entorest straight Islander women in
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  Speaker 2: terms of the misidentification, and so really welcome coercive control
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  Speaker 2: being included as a definition in the Act but not
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  Speaker 2: being criminalized.
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  Speaker 1: Are you able to just explain that a little bit
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  Speaker 1: further for our listeners, So maybe don't understand just what
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  Speaker 1: that means. Yeah? Sure.
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  Speaker 2: So across Australia there's debate with respect to coercive control,
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  Speaker 2: criminalization and of control is around the overarching impact of
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  Speaker 2: domestic and family violence, around all those other things that
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  Speaker 2: aren't physical violence, that isn't emotional or financial violence, but
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  Speaker 2: things over a pattern of time, and so across the
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  Speaker 2: country there's debate around do we criminalize coercive control or
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  Speaker 2: do we just say it part of DV and in
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  Speaker 2: the territory, particularly because of the nature of violence and
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  Speaker 2: the high levels of violence, and certainly in terms of
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  Speaker 2: our first responders currently the system unfortunately isn't getting it
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  Speaker 2: right and so to introduce a new criminal component, the
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  Speaker 2: research currently tells us that will disproportionately impact women who
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  Speaker 2: are the primary victim survivors, and so to include it
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  Speaker 2: only in terms of definitions of domestic violence is the
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  Speaker 2: best way to go, as well as to absolutely make
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  Speaker 2: concerted efforts to increase support and training for frontline service
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  Speaker 2: provider including police and health, so that we're making sure
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  Speaker 2: that we're giving support to people who need it.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Caitlyn, it does sound like there is quite a
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  Speaker 1: bit of quite a bit of work that is going
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  Speaker 1: to happen before this legislation passes through the Northern Territory Parliament,
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  Speaker 1: and it is always a good thing to have that consultation.
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  Speaker 1: So no doubt, I'm sure you'll be going through. Did
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  Speaker 1: you say it was those eighty two pages? It's quite
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  Speaker 1: a bit of detail to.
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  Speaker 2: Get through, Yes, yes, it is that looking forward to
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  Speaker 2: getting into the nitty gritty. Certainly making time for it
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  Speaker 2: is always really troublesome considering that most frontline specialist BFFB
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  Speaker 2: providers don't receive specialist funding for things like policies. But
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  Speaker 2: this is the type of consultation that has real impacts
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  Speaker 2: on the community and our client base. So something will
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  Speaker 2: be making the time to go through really well, providing
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  Speaker 2: that response ahead of the all guest turnaround.
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  Speaker 1: And Caitlyn, I guess it is something that we hear
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  Speaker 1: so often about our high rates of domestic violence here
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  Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory. I've no doubt that the top
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  Speaker 1: end women's legal service that you guys, you know, you
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  Speaker 1: see this all too often and it does seem as
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  Speaker 1: though we need to really do some serious work to
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  Speaker 1: try to minimize what we are experiencing.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, absolutely we do, and that's a whole of community response.
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  Speaker 2: And the Northern Territory Government has just released their action
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  Speaker 2: plan too for consultation, and certainly there's a Commonwealth Government's
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  Speaker 2: National Plan which speaks to that DFFB is a community issue,
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  Speaker 2: not just in our homes issue, but part of those
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  Speaker 2: long term change includes really significant and additional funding for
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  Speaker 2: specialist DFFC providers to enhance services. Too often, currently we
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  Speaker 2: are turning women away who are seeking help, seeking help
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  Speaker 2: to it seems like a domestic vance order because we
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  Speaker 2: are simply over capacity. And there is nothing worse, nothing
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  Speaker 2: worse for a specialist DFSC service to turn one away.
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  Speaker 2: Tom just doing it too frequently.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it'd be a horrible situation to be in having
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  Speaker 1: to turn someone away who you know really needs that help.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, and for their clients experience, you know, where
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  Speaker 2: does she go? Because there are specialist services who have
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  Speaker 2: staff who are trained to provide trauma informed and culturally
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  Speaker 2: secure services. If they're not available, where does she go?
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  Speaker 2: And the answer is nowhere. She's kind of stuck in
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  Speaker 2: this limbo system and really, you know that can be
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  Speaker 2: involved in a court process where there could be systems abuse,
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  Speaker 2: a court process that's initiated by the perpetrator of violence,
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  Speaker 2: where she's unable to access legal health because those legal
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  Speaker 2: services are just.
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  Speaker 1: Under the pump well top end Women's Legal Service CEO,
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  Speaker 1: Caitlin Weatherbee Fell I really appreciate your time this morning.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you very much for taking the time to have
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  Speaker 1: a chat with us. I understand as you've touched on,
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  Speaker 1: you know, you have really just had that meeting with
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  Speaker 1: the ministers, so we appreciate you coming on and explain
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  Speaker 1: this all little bit more to us.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks so much, Katie, thank you