New bill to curb domestic violence

Press, 28 October 1981, Page 24

New bill to curb domestic violence

By

DR JOHN CHURCH,

Senior Lecturer in

Education at the University of Canterbury'.

After nearly two years of promises, the Government has finally introduced its new Domestic Violence Bill. The bill contains three new provisions, two of which will give increased protection to battered women and children. The first of these is the non-violence order. If passed into law, the Domestic Violence Bill will give the courts the power to make a non-violence order in cases where two people are living together and one of them assaults another family member. The order will be available not only to battered women who are married to their assailants but also to those who are living in de facto relationships. In order to obtain this protection, the victim of domestic violence will have to convince the courts, firstly, that she (or the children) have been assaulted and, secondly, that this is likely to happen again. Once the order has been granted, it will become an offence for the violent party to assault, or to threaten to assault, any other member of the household. To enforce the order, the Police will be given the power to arrest any person that they suspect (with good reason) to have disobeyed the order. The Police have also

been given the power to detain anyone so arrested for a period of 24 hours. The offender who is detained will have the right to request that they be brought before the Courts. And the Courts will have the power either to release the arrested person or to leave them in custody for the rest of the 24-hour period. Many readers will be aware that the Police already have all of these powers, including the power to arrest and detain anyone who assaults or threatens to assault another person. So the new bill does not introduce any new police powers. Most readers will also be aware that the Police almost never exercise their power of arrest following assaults on family members. So what the non-violence order will do is issue the Police with a clear set of instructions — instructions which say that if this particular person assaults or threatens to assault members of his family then he is to be arrested and detained. The 24-hour cooling off period will then give the battered wife a little bit of time in which to decide what she wants to do about the continued violence. The second part of the bill relates to possession of the family home. If passed, the bill will give the Courts the power to evict a violent

parent from the family’ home or family flat. This will be called an accommodation order.

The accommodation order will be available not only to battered women who are married to their assailants but also to those living in de facto relationships. It will be available regardless of whether the victim of violence is still living in the home or whether she has left the home.

In order to obtain such an order, the battered wife will have to convince the Courts, first, that she (or the children) have been assaulted and, second, that this is likely to happen again. Once the order has been made, the violent party will be required to leave the family home (or flat) and to stay away. It will be an offence for them to come on to the property, or to hang about the property, or to approach or persistently telephone the other spouse or the children. When the Courts make this kind of order it will also have to specify the period of time that it is to remain in force, and the circumstances (if any) under which the violent party is permitted to come on to the property. Anyone convicted of disobeying an accommodation order will face a fine of up to $5OO or a term in prison of up to 3 months.

The accommodation order is very similar to two of the

orders which can already be obtained by the battered wife. These are the exclusive occupation order and the non-molestation order. The accommodation order introduces two desirable changes however. First, the accommodation order will be available to all battered women regardless of whether they are married to their assailants or not. (The present occupation order is available only to legally married person’s.) Second, the non-molesta-tion part of the accommodation order - is much more tightly worded than the nonmolestation order nowavailable. The new* order will allow none of the exceptions and excuses which can now be used to get around the non-molestation order. The violent offender will be permitted to come on to the property only under circumstances which have already been agreed to by the Judge when he made the order.

The third provision of the bill relates to counselling. Whenever the Courts make a non-violence order or accommodation order, they will have the power to recommend that either or both parties attend counselling. Since most marriage counsellors have little experience in dealing with violent offenders, it is hard to see this provision being of much help. However, it may lead to improvements in the training

of counsellors — improvements which mean they are better equipped to work with the violent offender.

The Domestic Violence Bill clearly reflects an increased understanding of the needs of the victims of domestic violence. , "The Press" (which has helped to publicise the plight of battered women and children) must take some of- the credit for this.

The legal reforms required in order to provide adequate protection for battered women and children have been well described in books such as “Listen to Me, Please!” put out earlier this year by :the Battered Women's Support Group. The new bill introduces only a small fraction of the legal reforms which have been suggested by those who work with battered wives. Nevertheless, the bill is an important one because it does aim to provide better protection than the protection available at present.

Those who applaud the contents of the bill must not assume that it will automatically pass into law. Although both the National Party and the Labour Party have indicated their support for the bill, there remain within New Zealand several well organised groups which are strongly opposed to increased levels of protection

for battered women. Some of these groups can be identified by their demand that both parents have equal rights of custody and access to their children, regardless of the way in which those parents have treated their family in the past. Groups opposed to increased protection for battered women represent a powerful lobby. These groups have already succeeded in making many changes to the family law. For example, they succeeded in getting the new family law modified in ways which greatly restricted the circumstances under which the violent party can be evicted from the family home, which greatly reduced the force of the non-molestation order, and which greatly increased the opportunities for continued intimidation following separation. Those who applaud the introduction of the new bill should not underestimate the power of this lobby. During the next six months the Domestic Violence Bill will be considered by select committee. Those who would like to see the bill passed into law, and those who would like to suggest improvements, should write to the Chairman, Statutes Revision Committee, Parliament Buildings, Wellington. This should be done before the end of February. It will be interesting to see whether the new bill gets passed intc law or not.