‘Invisible victims’: Calls for reform as family violence system fails children

A decade of family violence reforms have failed to address the needs of tens of thousands of children impacted every year, prompting calls for a dedicated national support service.

The nation’s leading family violence prevention advocates and experts have warned that vulnerable children are falling through cracks in the response to the 2015 Royal Commission into Family Violence and desperately need their own tailored services.

Family Court Chief Justice William Alstergren (left), with the court’s Janet Carmichael (centre) and Hayley Foster, is introducing measures to better cater for children’s needs in the court and wider legal system.Credit: Alex Coppel

The move is being backed by the Family Court, which has begun reforming its own processes and introducing a Children’s Charter to ensure the needs of young people impacted by family violence are put at the centre of its considerations.

The charter will guide all people working in the Family Court system – from social scientists to lawyers and judges – to ensure children and young people are considered at every step of the process.

Children were present during more than 37,000 family violence incidents Victoria Police responded to last year, but Safe Steps chief executive Dr Chelsea Tobin said young people were still not being treated as victims in their own right.

“We’ve come a long way since the royal commission. Billions of dollars are being poured in, and we see people seeking help that wouldn’t have 10 years ago,” Tobin said.

Safe Steps chief executive Chelsea Tobin.Credit: Eddie Jim

“But there is a gap for young people. The sector has predominantly built a system for adult victim/survivors, and it’s forgotten teenagers or young people, and they’re quite the invisible victims.

“Forty per cent of young people under the age of 16 have been exposed to family and domestic violence, and that’s really important because they’re particularly vulnerable to the effects of trauma at that age.”

Safe Steps operates the national 1800 RESPECT support service as well as Victoria’s only 24-hour family violence response centre, and is now leading calls for a dedicated national response providing young people with the support and service they need, particularly via social media and digital platforms.

To make sure the experiences of young people are not forgotten in the next phase of reforms the family violence prevention advocates have produced the Unanswered Calls documentary, which features young people telling their own raw experiences of suffering from family violence, as well as being failed by the systems supposedly in place to help.

On Wednesday, Chief Justice William Alstergren, who heads the Federal Circuit and Family Courts of Australia, brought together more than 100 judges, lawyers and legal experts to watch the documentary and push for a wider change across the legal profession.

From left: The Family Court’s director of family violence Hayley Foster, Chief Justice William Alstergren and Janet Carmichael, the executive director of the Court Children’s Service.Credit: Alex Coppel

He warned the lack of services for young people was so severe that the outcomes of cases are often impacted because judges had few options available.

“It gets worse as you get around the country. In certain places you’re really limited with what you can actually order because there are no services to actually be able to carry it out,” Alstergren said.

While the Family Law Act requires the court to put a child’s best interest into its final decisions, Alstergren said it would adopt a Children’s Charter in the coming months to extend that obligation with an expectation that children also be involved in every step of the court process.

“Children are the most important part of the case for us, particularly in parenting cases,” he said.

“It’s been really important to us to be able to have a coherent, clear and concise message about what we expect in relation to the voice of the child and what should be heard.

“It’s talking about not only what we should be doing, but also the feedback children get the opportunity of providing.”

The Family Court will also launch a dedicated children’s website to allow children to be involved in the legal processes, including animations for younger children and written content tailored to older children. The website explains what the court’s role is and what it might be doing in their case, who gets to make decisions, who they may get to speak to, and what will be considered in making a decision.

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)

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