Queensland Consolidated Acts

DOMESTIC AND FAMILY VIOLENCE PROTECTION ACT 2012 - SECT 20

20 Meaning of informal care relationship

(1) An
"informal care relationship" exists between 2 persons if 1 of them is or was dependent on the other person (the
"carer" ) for help in an activity of daily living.

Examples of help in an activity of daily living—

• dressing or other personal grooming of a person

• preparing a person’s meals or helping a person with eating meals

• shopping for a person’s groceries

• telephoning a specialist to make a medical appointment for a person

(2) An informal care relationship does not exist between a child and a parent of a child.

(3) An informal care relationship does not exist between 2 persons if 1 person helps the other person in an activity of daily living under a commercial arrangement.

Example for subsection (3)—

The relationship between a person and a nurse who visits the person each day to help with bathing and physiotherapy is not an informal care relationship because the nurse visits the person under a commercial arrangement made between the person and the nurse’s employer.

(4) For subsection (3) —

(a) a commercial arrangement may exist even if a person does not pay a fee for the help provided under the arrangement; and

Example for paragraph (a)—

The provision of help by a voluntary organisation for which a person does not pay a fee may still be under a commercial arrangement.

(b) an arrangement is not a commercial arrangement because 1 person receives a pension or allowance, or reimbursement for the purchase price of goods, for the help provided under the arrangement; and

(c) an arrangement is not a commercial arrangement if 1 person pays a fee for the help provided under the arrangement because of domestic violence committed by the other person.