Social and Welfare Law

The case study relates to a newspaper article published on the front page of The West Australian on Thursday July 18, titled ?Overhaul of domestic violence laws on cards.?

1- Discuss the issue of domestic violence in Australia and MAINLY in WESTERN AUSTRALIA.
? What is domestic violence.
? The complexity of the causes and consequences.
2- Analyse the use of the restraining orders as a social problem solving tool.

3- Refer to the newspaper article attached and examine the various issues raised as you conduct your analysis.
? Critique of the law referring to the issues raised by the article
? The various stakeholders mentioned in the article identified and their needs/interests analysed.

4- Demonstrated understanding about the Restraining Order Act, VRO?s, the intended outcomes of the Act, and the legal processes related to restraining orders.
? Evaluation of the likely benefits and consequences of proposed changes.

5- Evidence of extensive research performed.
6- As a starting point-
? comparing with different states
? looking at the interface between family law (i.e. Family Court is specialist court arguably better equipped to deal with FDV, but FC injunctions have "no teeth" and although FC has the power to issue VROs, it is seldom seen
? perhaps looking at what kind of appeals have been made in relation to VROs (there’s some controversial stuff out there)
? thinking about non-legislative reforms (i.e. education for judiciary, info-sharing protocols- etc)
Also, students may wish to look at the ALRC/NSWLRC Final Report from the Family Violence Inquiry to see some of the recommendations made in this regard and the National Council (to reduce violence against women and children) website has a resource called "domestic violence laws in Australia" which compares all jurisdictional VRO legislation. It’s a few years old now, but good starting point.