The New South Wales justice system is compromised by a series of lethal legislative loopholes that allow high-risk domestic violence perpetrators to evade accountability, manipulate court processes, and subject victims to ongoing systems abuse. 

We are led to believe that new laws protect survivors. The reality is that the current NSW Crimes Act and Regulations treat severe domestic violence patterns and protective order breaches as minor administrative inconveniences rather than dangerous predictors of escalation in behaviour. 

Official data from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) reveals a damning reality:

Less than 16% of recorded Apprehended Domestic Violence Order (ADVO) breaches in NSW ever result in a custodial prison sentence.

When prison is handed down, the sentences are shockingly brief—.completely overshadowed by the lenient sentences given for property crimes. For instance, in a real NSW court case:

• An offender faced 14 concurrent domestic violence and stalking charges.
• The offender also had a charge for 'obtain goods by deceit'  (fraud)
• The court handed down a 14-month custodial sentence
• 9 full months of the sentence was allocated to the fraud charge.
• The time served for the repeated, terrorizing safety breaches averaged out to just 19 days per breach. 

The system consistently prioritises protecting property over protecting human lives.

In addition, while recent law changes now allow an ADVO to commence when a perpetrator is released from custody, this ONLY applies if the order is finalized at the exact moment of criminal sentencing. If an ADVO is granted or varied before or after that sentencing date, the clock begins immediately. This means valuable safety time runs down while the offender is safely behind bars, stripping victims of their legislative right to a full two years of physical protection upon an offender’s release. 

When a high-risk offender is released on parole with an electronic ankle monitoring device, they can:

• cut it off,
• destroy government property, and
• flee interstate

with zero standalone criminal charges or accountability applied.

When an offender makes explicit verbal threats to "hunt you down and slit your throat," the NSW Crimes Act fails to recognize it as a standalone "Threat to Kill" offense.  NSW only has a 'threat to kill' charge if the threat was in writing.

Silence is our enemy. We are calling on the NSW Attorney General, the Minister for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, and the Parliament of New South Wales to urgently introduce a targeted package of legislative amendments to close, protect victims of domestic violence, and stop protecting the perpetrators.

We demand four immediate legislative reforms:

1. STANDALONE CRIMINAL OFFENCE FOR TRACKING DEVICE TAMPERING: Legislate a standalone criminal charge for removing, damaging, or failing to maintain an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet while on bail or parole, carrying mandatory custodial penalties.
2. EXPANSION OF THE "THREAT TO KILL" CHARGE: Amend the NSW Crimes Act to criminalise explicit verbal threats to take a life, removing the outdated requirement that a threat must be in written form to attract a heavy indictable penalty.
3. FIX THE ADVO POST-CUSTODY TIMING LOOPHOLE: Amend section 79 of the Crimes (Domestic and Personal Violence) Act so that the statutory period of protection automatically commences upon the offender's physical release from correctional custody, ensuring the safety clock never runs down behind bars.
4. MANDATORY SENTENCING VERIFICATION & PROTOCOLS: Legislate a "Victim Privacy Protocol" with civil penalties for correctional systems that compromise victim addresses during court filings, and mandate that all mitigating claims and character references entered by domestic violence defendants must be strictly cross-verified before sentencing.

NSW is falling behind other states in reform and the statistics on domestic violence are escalating. We do not just need a law on paper; we need a system that closes loopholes, punishes patterns, and refuses to allow perpetrators to weaponize institutional processes against survivors. We need a system victims:

•  can trust,
• not put victims lives at further risk, and
• not treat victims like they are the criminals

Sign this petition to demand that New South Wales passes targeted legislative changes to protect survivors and enforce real accountability from the perpetrators.