Recommendations

Clarity of Part 5A

1. That the Ministerial Guidelines be amended to include an explanation of the courts’ participation in the Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme.
2. That the Ministerial Guidelines be reviewed and amended to increase utility and improve understanding.

Effectiveness of Part 5A

3. That the Ministerial Guidelines be amended to highlight the ability of ISEs to proactively share relevant information with other services and provide guidance on when and how to appropriately and responsibly share information proactively.
4. That the Ministerial Guidelines be amended to emphasise the importance of sharing information in a timely manner. A case study should illustrate how ISEs can share information verbally in urgent cases, and record information after the fact.
5. That Part 5A of the Act be amended to require ISEs to respond to a request for information within a reasonable timeframe and include factors for ISEs to consider in determining what constitutes a reasonable timeframe. The Ministerial Guidelines should also be amended to include guidance to support ISEs to implement this change.

Impact of Part 5A on victim survivors

6. That the Ministerial Guidelines be amended to incorporate information from the MARAM Framework on victim survivor agency and self-assessment of risk.
7. That Part 5A of the Act be amended to introduce a requirement for an ISE that collects family violence–related information from a victim survivor to, at the time of or before collecting that information, take reasonable steps to ensure the victim survivor is aware of when, and to whom, their confidential information may or must be disclosed under Part 5A.
8. That Part 5A of the Act be amended to confirm that an ISE may disclose a victim survivor’s confidential information, with consent, for the purpose of reducing the trauma associated with needing to retell their story.

Effectiveness of the CIP

9. That Part 5A of the Act be amended to clarify that a purpose of the CIP is to collate information from data custodians and provide a consolidated report to a CIP requester.
10. That Part 5A of the Act be amended to define a CIP requester as an ISE that is prescribed in regulations to be a CIP requester for the purposes of the Act.
11. That Part 5A of the Act be amended to include timeliness as an object of Division 6, require the CIP to respond to a CIP request within a reasonable timeframe and include factors for the CIP to consider in determining what constitutes a reasonable timeframe.
12. That the Ministerial Guidelines be amended to provide guidance about on-sharing risk-relevant information. This should include a case example with CIP report information.

Clarity of Part 11

13. That the legislative instrument authorising MARAM as the approved framework under Part 11 of the Act be amended to clearly set out the steps and activities that framework organisations must take to align with MARAM.
14. That Part 11 of the Act be amended to allow both people and bodies to be prescribed as framework organisations.

Effectiveness of Part 11

15. That the legislative instrument authorising MARAM as the approved framework under Part 11 of the Act be amended to introduce a timeline for alignment activities. The steps and activities to be incorporated into the legislative instrument under Recommendation 13 above should be linked to the timeline, with timeframes determined based on an organisation’s date of prescription as a framework organisation.
16. That the Regulations be amended to require portfolio ministers’ annual reports and the consolidated annual report to include information about framework organisations’ progress against key alignment steps and activities and timeframes. These amendments should be progressed after the legislative instrument has been amended in accordance with recommendations 13 and 15.