Family Violence Information Sharing Schemes Research Brief

Appropriate and timely sharing of family violence risk relevant information between agencies is increasingly recognised as critical to changing family violence outcomes by ensuring timely responses, particularly to escalating risk. Internationally, jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom, British Columbia, New Zealand and the United States have introduced legislative mechanisms that support the disclosure of information otherwise considered private in the context of family violence risk. Numerous high-profile Australian inquiries into domestic and family violence, have recommended specific legislation be introduced to improve information sharing arrangements between relevant entities. These recommendations have resulted in many Australian jurisdictions adopting family violence information sharing legislation. In this research brief, we outline existing Australian legislation and examine existing evidence about the efficacy of such schemes.