Supporting victim-survivors of domestic violence
The Family, Personal and Sexual Violence Amendment Bill aims to support victim-survivors of family, personal and sexual violence to access a trauma-informed justice system. The bill was introduced in the Legislative Assembly on 3 December 2025.
About the reform
The bill proposes changes to several laws to improve family, personal and sexual violence court proceedings:
- Evidence (Miscellaneous) Provisions Act 1991
- Family Violence Act 2016
- Personal Violence Act
- Crimes (Sentencing) Act 2005
The bill aims to make sure:
- our laws are clearer
- our laws deliver justice and protection for those affected by violence
- our laws respond to community expectations.
Quickly protecting victim-survivors from harm
The bill introduces a new Family Violence Safety Notice scheme for the ACT. These are short-term protection notices that police can issue to keep people safe from family violence.
The notice is made against one person (called the respondent) to stop them from using family violence against another person (called the protected person). The notice can include rules about what the respondent can and cannot do.
The rules aim to prevent any violence against the protected person and keep that person safe. These rules can include things like:
- not using violence against the protected person
- not going near the protected person.
Breaching a Family Violence Safety Notice is a criminal offence.
A senior police officer (Sergeant or higher) can issue a notice if someone is in danger and needs immediate protection.
The notice lasts for up to 14 days. This gives the person time to get help and stay safe. For longer protection, they can apply for a Family Violence Order through the court.
Family Violence Safety Notices will replace After-Hours Orders and make the ACT’s laws similar to other states and territories.
Improving the court process for victim-survivors
The bill also proposes changes to how courts sentence people found guilty of child sexual abuse. The bill proposes that courts will no longer be able to reduce a sentence based on an offender’s ‘good character’.
This change has been informed by the Your Reference Ain't Relevant campaign, co-founded by survivors Harrison James and Jarad Grice.
The bill also introduces changes to the Evidence (Miscellaneous) Provisions Act 1991 to:
- make it clear that counselling records related to victim-survivors of a sexual offence or family violence offence are protected in all court cases, both criminal and civil
- allow victim-survivors of a sexual offence or family violence offence to choose to share their counselling records in civil court cases
- make sure courts think about how sharing counselling records in a court case could affect victim-survivors of a sexual offence or family violence offence
- improve the experience of witnesses of intimate image abuse offences in court by treating intimate image abuse (like sharing or threatening to share explicit images without consent) as a sexual offence in court.
This means that victim-survivors of intimate image abuse offences will have access to the same protections currently available to witnesses in other sexual offence matters. For example, that evidence can be given in a closed court and victim-survivor’s identities can be protected.
Additionally, the Bill plans to:
- confirm that breaching a protection order is still an offence, even if it was served in a way other than in person, as long as the court agrees
- confirm that a person may appear in court via remote technology if the court agrees
- require self-represented family violence defendants to return the complainant’s recorded statements after the case ends.
Why it’s important
Changes from this bill will have positive impacts for victim-survivors of family, personal and sexual violence and the functioning of the ACT legal system.
These changes make our legal system safer and more accessible for victim-survivors. They also help the court and police respond more effectively to family, personal and sexual violence.
Next steps
The ACT Legislative Assembly is currently conducting an inquiry into the bill. You can read more about the inquiry on the Legislative Assembly website.