Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 2012

Queensland domestic and family violence legislation

Domestic and family violence can occur in any family regardless of ethnic or cultural background, religious beliefs, sexual preference, age, gender, or socioeconomic status. Males are more often the offender, but men can also be victims.

The Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 2012 (the Act) aims to provide safety and protection for people in relevant relationships who are victims of domestic and family violence.

The Act defines relevant relationships as spousal relationships, intimate personal relationships, family relationships and informal care relationships.

The Act replaces the Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 1989. It provides a broader and more comtemporary definition of what constitutes domestic and family violence. It also ensures greater protection for those who experience domestic and family violence through the introduction of police protection notices.

Other amendments include:

•  increased penalties of up to three years imprisonment for breaches of domestic violence orders
•  the addition of a preamble and principles to guide the administration of the legislation, and
•  increased guidance about what must be considered  when deciding whether to remove a perpetrator from the family home and ordering the perpetrator to attend intervention and counselling programs.
  
Resources are available with more information about the Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 2012.
• Fact Sheets

A training kit has been developed to provide organisations with information on new legislative arrangements under the Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 2012.

The training kit is available at Publications and Resources 

What are relevant relationships under the Act?

Intimate personal relationships:

Intimate personal relationships include couples where the two people are of the opposite or same gender, people who are engaged, in a de facto relationship or who are married. They include people who are separated or divorced, who have a child together, and include people who are living together or have previously lived together as a couple. People who are or were engaged to be married including a betrothal under cultural or religious tradition are also covered. It can include people who haven’t lived together in some circumstances, including people under the age of 18.

A court will consider each relationship on a case by case basis to see if an intimate personal relationship exists. To assist the court to decide if such a relationship exits, it may look at how long the couple have been together, how often the couple see each other or how dependent on or committed the couple are to each other.  

Family relationships:

Family relationships exist between two people who are related by either blood or marriage, including a spouse, a child, a parent, a sibling, a grandparent, an aunt, or uncle, a cousin, a step-relative, half-relatives and in-laws. Children under the age of 18 cannot access protection in these categories of relationships.  The Child Protection Act 1999 sets out the relevant law for the protection of children within families.  

For some cultural groups, for  example Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, a wider group of people may be considered as family and may be recognised under the Act.

Informal care relationships:

Informal care relationships exist where one person is dependent on another person for help with essential daily tasks, such as dressing or grooming, meal preparation, grocery shopping or arranging medical care. This does not include help provided by a paid person but where the care is provided without payment.  A person receiving a carers payment from the government is not a paid carer and can be part of an informal care relationship.

Seeking protection through a domestic violence order

The Act provides protection to those people experiencing domestic and family violence by allowing a Court to make a domestic violence order. The domestic violence order aims to prevent domestic and family violence occurring within a domestic relationship by restricting the behaviour of the person committing the abuse (the respondent).

If you are experiencing domestic and family violence in a relationship covered under the Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 2012, you can apply for a domestic violence order.

The Act recognises that some people may not want to end their relationship: they just want the violence to stop. This means that the person seeking protection and the person who committed the abuse can continue to have contact with each other and live together if that is what they both want.

More information on the Act can be found in the department's booklet Legislation Explained: The Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 2012. Copies of the Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 2012 can be obtained from The Government Bookshop or at www.legislation.qld.gov.au.

See further information about applying for a Domestic Violence Order.