The problem
Right now in Australia, there’s no single system that lets police, child protection, family courts, and federal agencies share critical safety information about family violence.
Each part of the system holds just a piece of the puzzle.
But no one sees the full picture.
A woman might report abuse to police. She might apply for a protection order in court. Her children might be on the radar of child protection. Centrelink might be involved too.
But these services don’t automatically share what they know — even when lives are at risk.
In some cases, mums have had a state-based restraining order in place to protect herself and her children from a violent ex-partner.
But because the Federal Circuit and Family Court didn’t have access to that information, they issued an order for unsupervised contact between the father and the children.
These failures are costing women and children their lives
- Women are forced to repeat their trauma again and again to different agencies.
- Warning signs are missed because no one connects the dots.
- Dangerous men slip through the cracks because their full history isn’t visible.
- Courts make decisions without knowing the real risk.
The solution
This is why I am pushing the Government for a Real-Time National Family Safety Register.
What is the Real-Time National Family Safety Register?
I’m fighting for a secure national system that allows key services like police, child protection, courts and state and federal departments to safely share information about risk in real time.
The Family Safety Register will
- Enable secure, real-time data sharing between state and federal agencies — including police, child protection, family courts, Centrelink, and legal services.
- Provide a centralised view of family violence history, including previous police reports, court orders, child protection alerts, and other relevant risk information.
- Allow authorised frontline workers (e.g. case workers, court staff, law enforcement) to access consistent, up-to-date information when managing a case.
- Support risk assessments by showing patterns of behaviour across jurisdictions (e.g. repeat offenders, breaches of orders, interstate movements).
- Improve coordination between agencies, reducing duplicated effort and conflicting decisions across courts, support services, and government departments.
- Reduce administrative delays by eliminating the need for separate information requests and case file transfers between agencies.
- Reduce the burden on victim-survivors by removing the need to repeat their story to multiple services — once recorded, verified information can be securely shared between agencies.
Take action
Please sign up below because I need your help to pressure the Government into establishing a Real-Time National Family Safety Register.