Pauline Hanson proposes overhaul of domestic violence laws

Pauline Hanson says domestic violence allegations are being “weaponised” in family law disputes and wants to put an end to the practice with a radical idea.

Domestic violence laws are being “weaponised” in family law disputes and should be overhauled to recognise different levels of offending, according to Pauline Hanson.

The One Nation leader said “loose” DV laws, which vary across the country, have armed separated couples with the power to push for charges against each other for repeated but unsolicited contact by phone, SMS or social networking sites.

Senator Hanson is deputy chair of a joint select committee on the family law system, which delivered a second interim report yesterday with 29 recommendations including a review of domestic violence definitions.

“What I’ve taken from this inquiry into Australia’s family law system is that most judges are overworked, their daily dockets are beyond acceptable, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realise they don’t have the time to read pages and pages of submissions when a case is first presented due to the backlog in our family law courts,” she said.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson says domestic violence laws are being weaponised in family law disputes. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

“Submissions have revealed parents charged with domestic violence for simply sending text messages to their former partner seeking a time to see their children.”

She has seized on the report to call for domestic violence to be split into a three-tiered system that recognises different categories of offending: domestic harassment, domestic threat and domestic violence.

“When a judge makes interim orders, the first sign of domestic violence is typically met with a less favourable judgment against the alleged perpetrator, with privileges and access to children often restricted,” she said.

“I have read submissions of what this does to a parent who simply wants to see or speak to their children. They hardly deserve the label of a domestic violence perpetrator for trying to be a loving, involved parent.”

She stressed charges for people who physically or sexually abuse their partners must not be “watered down”.

“I’m seeking to amend the damage being caused by such a broad brush approach to domestic violence,” she said.

Other recommendations in the report tabled yesterday include more funding for Legal Aid and community legal centres, extra funding to address court backlogs and reconstituting the Family Law Council.

The three Labor committee members, including Moreton MP Graham Perrett, welcomed the recommendations but said the issues were already well known before the inquiry.

“The substance of all these recommendations have been recommended by recent previous reports and inquiries,” they said in a joint statement.

“We didn’t need this inquiry to know that false allegations are not prevalent in the family law system, but the committee unanimously accepted that false allegations of abuse are not widespread.”