ACT Police Powers to Issue Family Violence Safety Notices

Family, Personal and Sexual Violence Legislation Amendment Bill 2025

3 Dec 2025: A parliamentary committee is reviewing this bill and can call for public submissions, before reporting back to parliament — this can take up to six months.

Introduced by: Tara Cheyne (ALP)

Links to official parliament websites

Official page: progress through parliament

Effects of this bill

If this bill passes, it means that:

Senior police officers can issue family violence safety notices if there is an immediate risk of violence
Police can detain a person for up to 4 hours while applying for a safety notice
Police must not put a protected person's home or work address in a notice unless the person agrees or the respondent already knows it
Breaking a condition of a family violence safety notice is a criminal offence; it carries a fine of 200 penalty units or 2 years in prison
Police can seize firearms and ammunition and suspend the licence of anyone subject to a safety notice
Breaking a bail condition is not a breach if the person did it to comply with a family violence safety notice
Courts can no longer consider an offender's good character as a factor that helped them commit a sexual offence against a child
Accused persons must be given an audio copy of recorded statements; they must return the copy to a police station within 16 weeks of the case ending

Topics

child sexual abuse criminal justice domestic abuse family violence firearms police powers victim safety