Family violence and family law in Australia: the views and experiences of children and adults from families who separated post-1995 and post-2006

The new family law legislation of 2006 was introduced as offering a stronger framework for the protection of adult victims and children from family violence. However, this view was disputed by many professionals prior to the introduction of the legislation and the creation of the many new services to support it. Shortly after the implementation of the legislation, disquiet emerged about its impact on the management of family violence following parental separation and divorce. By early 2009, the new Commonwealth Government had announced an unprecedented series of enquires into aspects of the working of the new legislation, with all except one being primarily concerned with family violence. This paper will present some of the findings of one of these enquiries, the Monash/Uni SA/James Cook enquiry into family law and family violence, aimed at discovering what former partners and children had experienced in their use of the family law socio-legal services before and after the new legislation, what their views of the services were and how violence influenced their separation and post-separation decision making. The project tapped the views and experiences of over 1,000 adults and children who separated post-1995 and post-2006, using: online surveys for adults and children, call-back interviews with a sample of adults from that group and phone-ins with adults and children in Queensland and South Australia. The project canvassed males and females from all states and all walks of life, including most ethnicities and Indigenous people.