Yvette Berry proposes law for family violence death review

ACT Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence Yvette Berry introduced the proposed amendment to the Domestic Violence Agencies Act, which would make way for the review.

A death review would examine deaths from family and domestic violence and identify factors that lead to these deaths. Ms Berry said it would also allow for recommendations to be made to improve system responses.

"To do this death reviews take a system wide perspective and make recommendations that relate to policy procedure legislation, system and services data collection and management and public awareness," she said.

Most other Australian jurisdictions have already introduced a family violence death review, Tasmania and the ACT are the only two where the review has yet to be established.

The ACT government promised to introduce a family violence death review in 2016, after a reform of the Family Violence Act.

"Death reviews examine the context in which the deaths occur, the escalation of violence and threats prior to the death and the response or lack of response by a range of systems and agencies," Ms Berry said.

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"The advantage and value of domestic violence death reviews is that they move beyond an emphasis on the cause of death, determination of facts or assignment of blame, instead the death review looks at the contributory process and patterns that lead up to the homicide.

"But they also look at these deaths as not isolated events but as a connected group of homicides that unfold in this specific context of domestic violence."

As part of the legislation, the territory government would establish a new role of a Domestic and Family Review Coordinator.

This coordinator would be responsible for identifying preventative measures to reduce family violence and would make recommendations to Ms Berry around reducing the likelihood of family violence.

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