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Australia's new domestic violence laws. Not good news for someone who disconnects.

Chess

Patron with Honors
Have a close read of new domestic laws coming into effect this week in Australia - it's now domestic violence to prevent a person from contact with or cut people off from their family. I'd reckon they may feel a little ill in the HCOs of ANZO pretty soon.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-03/new-domestic-violence-laws-target-emotional-abuse/4049150

New domestic violence laws target emotional abuse

Updated June 03, 2012 11:56:31


Related Story: Domestic violence costs $13bn a year


Map: Australia
New domestic violence laws will make it an offence to harm pets, cut people off from their family or withhold financial support.

The changes to the Family Law Act were passed in December but come into effect this week.

They expand the definition of domestic violence to more than just physical harm, such as denying a family member financial autonomy or the money required to meet reasonable living expenses.

The changes also include emotional abuse and preventing a person from maintaining contact with family, friends or their culture.

The Salvation Army's Major Andrew Craib says the changes recognise that it is not just physical acts of violence that can harm children.

"They might see a perpetrator constantly putting people down. Often people hear that enough and they begin to believe that for themselves and that's unacceptable in our society," he said.

Mr Craib also says the changes are a reflection of society's rejection of domestic violence.

He hopes the changes will encourage more victims to seek help.

"They're more likely to feel now that somebody has an understanding of the circumstances that they're putting up with," he said.

"I would hope that that gives them a bit of confidence and reassurance that people are actually going to hear them and believe them and that some action is going to come about that's going to bring both their safety and that of their children."

Topics:domestic-violence, law-crime-and-justice, australia

First posted June 03, 2012 11:06:47
 

larfalot

Patron
Re: Australia's new domestic violence laws. Not good news for someone who disconnects

Thanks so much for this news. YAY. :clap:
 

namaste

Silver Meritorious Patron
Re: Australia's new domestic violence laws. Not good news for someone who disconnects

Yes, thank you for the info.
I am hoping that other countries will follow suit.
Looking forward to seeing HCO/OSA members being convicted for the domestic abuse that they pepetrate.
 

Dulloldfart

Squirrel Extraordinaire
Re: Australia's new domestic violence laws. Not good news for someone who disconnects

Well now, this could be interesting. Does anyone have a link to the actual wording of the law? I couldn't find it on a quick look.

Paul
 

Lone Star

Crusader
Re: Australia's new domestic violence laws. Not good news for someone who disconnects

Okay CoS you might as well just pull out of Oz. That zone is not salvageable when they care so much about families, children, decency, respect, and the like. It's a very low-toned place obviously. :coolwink:

So pull up stakes and go confront that Russian problem. Slappy the Dwarf can fly out and have a personal meeting with ol' Vladimir Putin. You know, "Tone 40" him like you did the IRS. Take little Tommy Cruise with ya. I'm sure ex-KGB East Germany station chief Vlad will be intimidated.
:roflmao:
 

Chess

Patron with Honors

Zhent

Leakus Maximus
Re: Australia's new domestic violence laws. Not good news for someone who disconnects

The changes also include emotional abuse and preventing a person from maintaining contact with family, friends or their culture.

Saw this in the paper yesterday (front page!) and immediately thought of disconnection. It should not bode well for Scientology at all.

I couldn't find the bill details but I did find this instead:

http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r4840

Crimes Legislation Amendment (Slavery, Slavery-like Conditions and People Trafficking) Bill 2012

A lot of big legal sticks to whack Scientology with these days.
 

Captain Koolaid

Patron Meritorious
Re: Australia's new domestic violence laws. Not good news for someone who disconnects

The problem in this scenario is that victims under the spell will consider their disconnection as beneficial, they will parrot the party line that they have the right to not communicate with their families. Of course they're brainwashed, but how can this be proven?
 

Dulloldfart

Squirrel Extraordinaire
Re: Australia's new domestic violence laws. Not good news for someone who disconnects

It seems mostly to address children but I'm sure it must be more expansive than that. If you understand it please give a summary in layman's terms.

http://australiandivorce.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/2012-domestic-violence-changes.html

Thanks very much. I'm not able to give a fair summary. It seems to me that it is so broad that if you sneeze and don't have a tissue handy and your child hears about it (doesn't even have to observe it personally) then you have violated it.

Paul
 

Chess

Patron with Honors
Re: Australia's new domestic violence laws. Not good news for someone who disconnects

The problem in this scenario is that victims under the spell will consider their disconnection as beneficial, they will parrot the party line that they have the right to not communicate with their families. Of course they're brainwashed, but how can this be proven?

Yes, that will probably be the truth for the many under that spell. However, it only takes one case to get to court and all that dirty laundry has a chance of being aired in a public/legal forum. The media would love something like this, all those grubby little details. I can see the headlines now - The Church of Scientology condones practices and encourages domestic violence. Hubbard was correct in cancelling disconnection way back when you think about it. Miscavige needs damage control big time on this one, let's see how the culture of "disconnection as power" handles this one.
One point about Australian law is that once a complaint is made concerning domestic violence, it then becomes a police matter.The plantiff cannot easily just "drop the case or withdraw the complaint." The police investigation can proceed all on its own.
Ethics has failed at Church level, justice must pervail.
 

Chess

Patron with Honors
Re: Australia's new domestic violence laws. Not good news for someone who disconnects

Thanks very much. I'm not able to give a fair summary. It seems to me that it is so broad that if you sneeze and don't have a tissue handy and your child hears about it (doesn't even have to observe it personally) then you have violated it.

Paul

Yeah, that sounds like Australian Law; broad, sweeping and full steam ahead for a police state.
 

Petey C

Silver Meritorious Patron
Re: Australia's new domestic violence laws. Not good news for someone who disconnects

Have a close read of new domestic laws coming into effect this week in Australia - it's now domestic violence to prevent a person from contact with or cut people off from their family. I'd reckon they may feel a little ill in the HCOs of ANZO pretty soon.

Not to rain on anyone's parade but I truly wonder whether any ex would use these laws to pursue Scn. In my own experience, generally the recently out (therefore those who are within the statute of limitations, if there is one for this legislation) are loath to take Scn to court and would rather suffer and grumble and justify their position than do the unthinkable and lay a charge. I know this is a generality (and I'm probably an SP) but even though many exes say they are done with Scn, they're leaving the gate open a wee crack just in case. If they sue, they're forever damned.
 

Chess

Patron with Honors
Re: Australia's new domestic violence laws. Not good news for someone who disconnects

Not to rain on anyone's parade but I truly wonder whether any ex would use these laws to pursue Scn. In my own experience, generally the recently out (therefore those who are within the statute of limitations, if there is one for this legislation) are loath to take Scn to court and would rather suffer and grumble and justify their position than do the unthinkable and lay a charge. I know this is a generality (and I'm probably an SP) but even though many exes say they are done with Scn, they're leaving the gate open a wee crack just in case. If they sue, they're forever damned.

When I first read this, it made me once again realise the depth of criminality the Church has descended into. I'm a lot older now and to be frank, the church really pisses me off. I no longer am introverted concerning my involement with The Church Scientology, I really want to see them forced to deal with and confront their own actions as a group within this society. They are so far removed from civilised I just reckon this new defintion in the law just might catch up with 'em - here's hoping. My parade is dry, but thanks for the thought.
 

GoNuclear

Gold Meritorious Patron
Re: Australia's new domestic violence laws. Not good news for someone who disconnects

The Cof$ doesn't just cut someone off from their family, THEY CAN'T. What they do is put a condition on further contact, an "or else" which, of course, is being declared espee. I suspect that a careful review of the wording of the law will show that it doesn't prevent the Cof$ from issuing their "or else" clause, especially with regards to those over 18.

Pete
 

Smilla

Ordinary Human
Re: Australia's new domestic violence laws. Not good news for someone who disconnects

When I first read this, it made me once again realise the depth of criminality the Church has descended into. I'm a lot older now and to be frank, the church really pisses me off. I no longer am introverted concerning my involement with The Church Scientology, I really want to see them forced to deal with and confront their own actions as a group within this society. They are so far removed from civilised I just reckon this new defintion in the law just might catch up with 'em - here's hoping. My parade is dry, but thanks for the thought.

At the higher level, they've become barbarians. No conscience, at all. That will be their undoing.
 

Petey C

Silver Meritorious Patron
Re: Australia's new domestic violence laws. Not good news for someone who disconnects

When I first read this, it made me once again realise the depth of criminality the Church has descended into. I'm a lot older now and to be frank, the church really pisses me off. I no longer am introverted concerning my involement with The Church Scientology, I really want to see them forced to deal with and confront their own actions as a group within this society. They are so far removed from civilised I just reckon this new defintion in the law just might catch up with 'em - here's hoping. My parade is dry, but thanks for the thought.

Yep, it pisses me off too. But they got you coming and going. When you're newly XSO you're most often a bit scared to take any kind of hard action and you see OSA everywhere and can't do anything without looking over your shoulder, much less sue the church. It is a kind of madness. Then when your perspective adjusts, you have to cope with the fact that you're just another no-one in a world full of billions of no-ones, rather than an enlightened master of the scientology universe, and by that time your hopes are blighted and you might be out of time to sue. The other complexity is that at some stage you want to put your time and energy towards recreating your life and spending time/money dealing with scientology is a total energy sink. When you're at the stage where your life is together and you have the time and energy, something else happens (as it did to me recently) that is a life changer that makes you adjust your priorities.

As far as Scientology goes in Australia, I reckon -- despite the damage the church causes -- that there are many other priorities that the authorities have to deal with. There are so few exes compared to the numbers of refugees, single parents, child abuse cases, pensioners, aspirational voters, lobby groups, owners of SMEs, etc etc etc, that ex Scns just disappear into the general background.

Pardon me if I sound cynical. I'm not really, I'm just seeing testing another POV.
 
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