The Victorian Government’s latest family violence reforms include some important and long-overdue changes, but several measures risk making things harder for victim-survivors.
Passed by parliament last week, the Justice Legislation Amendment (Family Violence, Stalking and Other Matters) Act 2026 makes significant changes to Victoria’s response to family violence, alongside reforms to fines, sentencing and discrimination laws.
Victoria’s 50 community legal centres work at the frontline of the legal response to family violence, poverty and discrimination. That experience gives us a clear view of what works, what doesn’t, and where well-intentioned laws can create unintended consequences for the people caught up in the system.
The good
The Act includes several welcome reforms that community legal centres have advocated for over many years. These include:
- Decriminalising begging, bringing Victoria into line with the rest of Australia and removing a barrier to support and housing.
- Expanding the Family Violence Scheme to cover excessive speeding fines incurred by perpetrators.
- Inclusion of court fines as part of the Work and Development Permits Scheme.
- Extending protections under the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic) to protect victim-survivors from discrimination.
Together, these reforms should remove some of the barriers that prevent people from finding safety, securing housing and getting their lives back on track.
The unfinished
The Act also contains measures that require further work before they can deliver their intended outcomes. Abolishing so-called ‘zombie warrants’ for imprisonment based on unpaid fines was partially achieved in the Act, with further legislation still required to ensure all warrants are covered. However, this is still only half the job. Victoria should now move to end imprisonment warrants for unpaid fines altogether, a practice that criminalises poverty while adding cost and complexity to the justice system.
The well-intentioned
The Act creates the potential for serious unintended consequences for Victorians in the justice system. In each of these areas, community legal centres supported the goal of reform. The problem is that sensible safeguards proposed by legal experts were left out. Areas of concern include:
- The introduction of a standalone criminal offence of coercive control risks exposing victim-survivors to misidentification and systems abuse, while diverting attention from the broader reforms needed to improve how coercive behaviour is addressed across the justice system.
- Restrictions on the use of good character evidence, which were intended to stop serious offenders relying on their reputation in court. Unfortunately, the final reform has been drafted so broadly that it may affect people far beyond the group it was designed to target.
- New powers allowing courts to make family violence intervention orders on their own motion which were intended to improve safety, but do not in themselves give victim-survivors greater agency without the inclusion of support and safeguards.
Quotes attributable to Federation of Community Legal Centres Director of Policy and Advocacy Daniel Scoullar:
“Victoria’s community legal centres are on the frontline supporting Victorians living with family violence, helping victim-survivors navigate legal systems that are complex, overwhelming and unsafe, and we appreciate the Victorian Government’s willingness to listen and respond to concerns raised by the sector.
“This Act delivers some important and overdue reforms, many of which reflect years of advocacy by community legal centres and our partners across the justice and family violence sectors, but good policy outcomes depend on more than good intentions and reforms must be designed to avoid creating unintended harm.
“A standalone coercive control offence cannot substitute for the whole-of-system reform needed to improve how controlling behaviour is identified and addressed across police, courts and the family violence system.
“Decriminalising begging, reforming fines and strengthening equal opportunity protections will make a real difference in the lives of Victorians, however there remains unfinished work in addressing remaining zombie warrants, ending the practice of imprisonment for unpaid fines, and refining good-character evidence rules.
“As parties develop their commitments ahead of the next state election, we want to see continued engagement with victim-survivors and the community legal sector on the reforms needed to make the system safer, fairer and more effective.”
