Following on from our previous report in to the processes for Family Violence Matters in the Magistrates Court we are pleased to release our second report “Their Stories, Our Stories; Tasmanian Women’s Experiences with Family Violence Orders”.

The first part of this report explores the very personal stories of Tasmanian women who have contacted our service and who have had either a Family Violence Order or a Police Family Violence Order issued to protect them. We have let them tell their own stories through quotes and statistics… and we think they tell a very strong story. The names have changed but the stories are true.

In the second part of the report our lawyers tell the stories of the many women who have either not reported the violence against them or who have stopped reporting violence and or breaches against them. The numbers of women who do not report family violence or breaches of Family Violence Orders or Police Family Violence Orders far outnuber those who do and their reasons vary. We explore some of the more recurring reasons why these women do not report.

This report is intended to help people understand what is involved in the current debate. For the best part we think Tasmania Police do a great job with limited resources and training. We believe that with more education resources and training money for Tasmania Police along with some of the tweaks we have suggested in our earlier report (including more funding for the Magistrates Court and additional resources for Prosections) that the outcomes for the community would be greatly increased.

We think this is an interesting report… for some it will not be news. For others, we hope they will look and listen to the stories and then make some changes.