Carroll announces rape law overhaul

Victorian Premier Ben Carroll pledges to increase the maximum penalty for rape from twenty five years to life imprisonment if Labor wins re-election.

New manslaughter offence for family violence

Labor will create a new manslaughter charge covering cases where a person takes their own life as a result of family violence, closing what the government calls loopholes.

Abandonment of injured victims to be criminalised

A new offence will criminalise perpetrators who abandon family violence victims needing medical care, responding to coroner recommendations after two deaths.

Belinda Jones left to die on her floor

Belinda Jones, forty, died in July twenty twenty three after her partner left her overnight then waited two hours to call an ambulance.

Coroner condemns abandonment as control

State Coroner Liberty Sanger ruled that abandoning a family violence victim in need of medical care is itself an act of family violence that affirms perpetrator control.

“the act of abandoning a victim of family violence requiring medical attention is an act of family violence, that instils fear in the victim and affirms a perpetrator's control over the victim.”

Restrictions on victim cross-examination

Labor will prevent barristers from using humiliating and invasive questioning techniques against victim-survivors and allow courts to consider patterns of sexual abuse as evidence.

“I'm sick of Victoria's courts and defence barristers putting victims on trial.”

Violence kills a woman every two weeks

Carroll says Victoria must act on family and sexual violence, which kills a Victorian woman every two weeks. The reforms come ahead of November's election.

“We must act on the violence that is killing a Victorian woman every two weeks.”