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Media Release – Stronger and safer

Stronger and safer: Peninsula Community Legal Centre welcomes changes to family violence laws

Peninsula Community Legal Centre (PCLC) has welcomed significant reforms to Victoria’s family violence laws, due to come into effect in stages from April 2026, saying they will provide stronger protection for people experiencing family violence.

Last year, PCLC assisted more than 6,600 clients, with nearly half of all clients reporting they were affected by family violence. CEO Jackie Galloway OAM said the reforms to the Family Violence Protection Act reflect a more contemporary understanding of the many forms family violence can take.

The updated laws will:

· Expand the definition of family violence to clearly include stalking, systems abuse and animal cruelty

· Introduce a two-year default duration for intervention orders

· Improve safeguards to prevent victim-survivors being wrongly identified as perpetrators

· Ensure young people remain protected by orders after turning 18

· Prevent intervention orders being made against children under 12.

· Allow Victorian courts to issue intervention orders for violence occurring interstate.

Ms Galloway said misidentification and systems abuse remain common issues for PCLC clients.

“Misidentification can have devastating consequences, including exclusion from the home and separation from children. The trauma can last long after the legal issues are resolved.”

“Systems abuse—where perpetrators weaponise court, police or child protection processes—can be exhausting and frightening for victim-survivors. Naming systems abuse in the law is an essential step in stopping it.”

Some minor, technical reforms have already come into effect. Other changes are scheduled to commence on 26 April 2026, with the most significant reforms to commence at an as yet unknown date before 10 November 2026. The Victorian Government has also announced plans to introduce a new offence criminalising coercive control in 2026.

About PCLC:
One of the largest, longest-standing community legal centres in Australia, we’ve been a proud, local and independent not-for-profit since 1977.

PCLC provides free legal advice to people living, working or studying in Frankston, Casey, Cardinia, Glen Eira, Kingston and the Mornington Peninsula, with specialist family violence services at the Frankston and Moorabbin courts.

For free legal advice about family violence, contact PCLC on (03) 9783 3600.

Media Contact:
Jackie Galloway
CEO PCLC | jgalloway@pclc.org.au | 0418 517 124