Victorian Labor pledges new offences to close family violence 'loopholes'
If re-elected, Victoria's Labor government will introduce two Australian-first offences targeting perpetrators who evade justice in family violence cases, following coronial findings into two women's deaths.
Victorian premier Ben Carroll will announce on Sunday an election commitment to create two new, Australian-first criminal offences aimed at closing what the government calls "loopholes" that let family violence perpetrators avoid punishment.
The first would establish a new form of manslaughter covering cases where a person dies by suicide as a result of family violence. The second would criminalise abandoning a victim who needs medical care.
The commitment responds directly to coronial recommendations following the deaths of Belinda Jones and Narelle Simmons. Jones, 40, died on the floor of her Maryborough home in July 2023 after her partner left her alone overnight and waited two hours to call an ambulance after finding her cold and not breathing. She had succumbed to treatable bacterial infections and sepsis that a hospital had failed to diagnose days earlier. Her partner faced no charges over her death.
State coroner Liberty Sanger found that abandoning a family violence victim in need of medical attention is itself an act of violence that instils fear and reinforces a perpetrator's control.
Simmons, 42, died in October 2021 after her partner admitted punching her twice in the face and elbowing her once in the back of the head before leaving her Cranbourne home. Her body was found nine days later. Her partner, who the coroner said had 18 prior family violence victims, pleaded guilty to common assault and failing to report a reportable death, receiving a five-month prison sentence.
The government also plans to raise the maximum penalty for rape from 25 years to life imprisonment, double the penalty for persistent breaches of family violence intervention orders to 10 years, and set a 30-year standard sentence for the murder of a partner. Additional measures would restrict humiliating cross-examination tactics against victim-survivors in court and allow courts to consider patterns of sexual abuse as evidence.
The announcement follows a week of crime-focused commitments from Carroll, including a new police training facility and a law allowing police to use handheld metal detectors to search for knives.
