FIGHTING BACK: Family violence laws must look beyond the bruises

For victims who manage to leave their partners, and are able to proceed with family violence orders or even criminal charges, the emotional battle continues in the courthouse.

That court process is something that needs to change for women and children who have survived violence in their home, according to former chief magistrate Michael Hill.

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Having sat on the bench for more than three decades, he's watched thousands of violent partners walk through the doors.

And despite court orders, or punishments handed out, a lot of those cases ended in tragedy.

"If I am sitting in court and making a protective order against a man, I am generally not going to see him again unless he breaches that order," he said.

"It is a bit half-hearted, and more often than you want these things end awfully tragic."

He suggested a new way of dealing with family violence offenders, similar to the court mandated drug diversion program - which allows drug addicted offenders the opportunity to enter rehabilitative programs, rather than prison.

"We don't have that model for family violence offenders now, and we never have.

"When it comes to family violence, you need to deal with it quickly, you can't deal with it months down the track, and if offenders want to be able to get into rehabilitation programs, they need to be able to do that quickly.

"There needs to be a different model that would enable offenders to be put on orders, and put into programs, then brought back into the court on a regular basis."

The legal battle for victims is not limited to the court process either, with criticisms around the laws put in place to protect them.

While the definition of family violence within the law includes more than physical acts, Mr Hill said there were some sections rarely or never applied during his time on the bench.

And that included economic intimidation and emotional abuse.

It is something Women's Legal Service Tasmania is fighting to change.

While Tasmania is the only state to include emotional and economic abuse within family violence laws, WLST chief executive Yvette Cehtel said coercive control needed to be criminalised more broadly.

"Often when we go out into the community, people don't realise that economic and emotional abuse are against the law, people don't associate it with family violence," she said.

"There are not many standalone cases where people have been prosecuted and I think that is partly a training issue with the police and lawyers, but it is also a bit of a lag in the law."

In the first three years after the two offences of emotional and economic abuse were introduced in 2004, no charges were laid in Tasmania.

Up until the end of last year, 198 charges had been laid in relation to the two offences, 186 of which involved emotional abuse.

But this was compared to roughly 3000 charges for breaches of police family violence orders in just one year alone.

Of those 3000, Ms Cehtel said it was likely nearly all would include some sort of emotional abuse.

And those were just the cases reported.

In a submission to an inquiry into family, domestic, and sexual violence, WLST stated there was a "gap in the existing criminal law which fails to recognise that family violence is commonly characterised by a course of conduct, rather than a single specific incident".

"Furthermore, existing laws do not adequately capture the range of non-physical abusive behaviours that constitute family violence," the submission read.

"Coercive control offences are therefore necessary to capture the full range of behaviours, and can include conduct directed towards people other than the victim themselves (such as children or other family members, or even pets), that constitute family violence."

The Examiner has launched a new campaign in an effort to raise more awareness about all aspects of family violence, and to fight to reduce barriers for victims of that violence.

As part of the first step of the campaign, The Examiner is petitioning to have an administrative cost for lodging an interim family violence order removed.

Join the fight and sign the petition here.

For those seeking help, Family Violence Counselling and Support Service is available on1800 608 122 from 9am to midnight weekdays, and 4pm to midnight on weekends and public holidays.

Telephone and online counselling is available at 1800 RESPECT or by calling 1800 737 732.