Victoria Labor promises new offences — The Guardian
Australia’s Victorian Labor Party has promised, if re-elected, to introduce two new criminal offences in domestic and family violence cases. These include a new form of manslaughter for cases where a person takes their own life as a result of family violence, as well as liability for abandoning a victim who needs medical assistance.
Victorian Premier Ben Carroll is due to announce these election commitments on September 20. As The Guardian reports, the state government said the new provisions were intended to close loopholes that, in its view, allow abusers to avoid punishment.
The cases of Belinda Jones and Narelle Simmons
The proposal to establish liability for leaving a person without medical assistance responds to recommendations by the coroner following the deaths of Belinda Jones and Narelle Simmons. Jones, 40, died on the floor of her home in Maryborough in July 2023. Her partner left her there overnight and, after discovering that she was cold and not breathing, waited another two hours before calling an ambulance.
Jones died from treatable bacterial infections and sepsis, but the hospital did not diagnose them when she attended the emergency department several days earlier. Her partner was not charged in connection with her death.
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Coroner Liberty Sanger noted that abandoning a family violence victim who needs medical assistance is an act of such violence: it instils fear and reinforces the abuser’s control over the victim.
Simmons, 42, died in October 2021 after her partner admitted that he punched her in the face twice and struck her once in the back of the head with his elbow, then left her home in Cranbourne. Her body was found nine days after her daughter requested a welfare check. The partner pleaded guilty to common assault and failing to report a reportable death; he was sentenced to five months in prison and 12 months of community correction orders.
Proposed sentencing changes
Labor also promised to raise the maximum penalty for rape from 25 years to life imprisonment, and maximum terms for all other serious sexual offences by five years. The maximum sentence for repeatedly breaching family violence intervention orders is planned to be doubled, from five to 10 years in prison.
The standard sentence for murdering a current or former partner is proposed to increase from 25 to 30 years. The party also promises to amend the Evidence Act so that lawyers cannot use humiliating and excessively invasive methods of questioning victims in court. Under the proposal, courts will be able to consider repeated incidents of sexual violence as evidence when hearing cases.
