A Tasmanian man allegedly murdered his mother, but it’s not legally considered family violence. Why?
The tragic case reveals a structural blind spot created by a family violence definition, making it harder for victim-survivors to get the help they need.
Last week, a 55-year-old man from southern Tasmania was charged with murdering his 85-year-old mother, whose body was found in her bed after being smothered. However, Tasmanian police have categorized this incident as not being a family violence crime due to the state’s limited definition of the term. Tasmania’s Family Violence Act only considers abuse committed by a spouse or partner as family violence, excluding other familial relationships such as parent-child, sibling, or grandparent-grandchild violence.
This narrow definition is the most restrictive in the country and fails to recognize various forms of violence within families. Consequently, this legal definition hinders victim-survivors from receiving appropriate support and makes it difficult to accurately count family violence incidents, which subsequently affects funding and service provision.
Service providers argue that many forms of family violence, such as abuse from a parent or sibling, are not recognized under Tasmanian law and therefore, are not adequately addressed.
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