Queensland Consolidated Acts

DOMESTIC AND FAMILY VIOLENCE PROTECTION ACT 2012 - SECT 4

4 Principles for administering Act

(1) This Act is to be administered under the principle that the safety, protection and wellbeing of people who fear or experience domestic violence, including children, are paramount.

(2) Subject to subsection (1) , this Act is also to be administered under the following principles—

(a) people who fear or experience domestic violence, including children, should be treated with respect and disruption to their lives should be minimised;

(b) to the extent that it is appropriate and practicable, the views and wishes of people who fear or experience domestic violence should be sought before a decision affecting them is made under this Act;

(c) perpetrators of domestic violence should be held accountable for their use of violence and its impact on other people and, if possible, provided with an opportunity to change;

(d) if people have characteristics that may make them particularly vulnerable to domestic violence, any response to the domestic violence should take account of those characteristics;

Examples of people who may be particularly vulnerable to domestic violence—

• women

• children

• Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples

• people from a culturally or linguistically diverse background

• people with disability

• people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex

• elderly people

(e) in circumstances in which there are conflicting allegations of domestic violence or indications that both persons in a relationship are committing acts of violence, including for their self-protection—

(i) the person who is most in need of protection in the relationship should be identified; and

(ii) only 1 domestic violence order protecting that person should be in force unless, in exceptional circumstances, there is clear evidence that each of the persons in the relationship is in need of protection from the other;

(f) a civil response under this Act should operate in conjunction with, not instead of, the criminal law.