Crisis exposed amid SA’s crackdown on DV perps
In the past year, more than 300 defendants charged with breaching domestic-violence-related intervention orders have been electronically monitored, new data shows.
The over-300 figure reflects domestic, family and sexual violence defendants monitored since new laws came into effect in October.
Currently, over 1400 offenders are subject to electronic monitoring for a range of charges, including those who have breached intervention orders, according to the Department for Correctional Services.
The Department of Correctional Services figures were released on Friday, after a landmark report showed intervention order breaches were a key concern of victim-survivors.
Of the 136 recommendations handed down by the Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence last week, 11 mention intervention orders.
The recommendations span making intervention orders easier to access and strengthening them by addressing critical gaps, like removing conditions that allow violent defendants to stay in the home and extending intervention laws to presume children are included.
The government hasn’t committed to all the recommendations yet, but Premier Peter Malinauskas said his government aimed to address them by the end of the year.
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In the Voices report, a document containing lived experience statements that accompanied the Commission’s findings, one Victim Survivor said there needed to be more focus on safety for the person reporting abuse, especially in rural and remote areas.
“This would then ideally lead to an interim intervention order that was based on the needs of the victim, regardless of the perceived ‘rights’ of the perpetrator to continue to have full access to his former life, if this continued access would continue to contribute to control and distress for the victim,” a victim-survivor wrote.
Another pointed to protections needing to extend to children, and a need for the courts to understand this.
“The magistrates also removed my children from the intervention order even though he had continually abused me in front of the children, assaulted the eldest child and the children being present when he last assaulted me and advised it to be referred to the family court,” they wrote.
Several recommendations focus on enhancing the capacity and capability of the courts and, in a statement, South Australia’s Chief Justice, the Honourable Chris Kourakis said he welcomed it.
“Judges do not magically gain all the general knowledge, understanding and wisdom, which is needed to serve the people of this State well, the moment they are appointed,” Kourakis said.
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“It is now well accepted that continuing professional development is as necessary for Judges as it is for all other occupations in our rapidly changing world.
“Engaging in high-quality education and training programs, developed collaboratively by experts in the field and judge-educators, enhances judicial decision making without diminishing judicial independence.”
Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Minister Katrine Hildyard said the reforms that were already introduced in October, including the additional monitoring for those who breach orders, are working.
“What we now see is our landmark legislative reforms improving the safety of domestic, family and sexual violence survivors,” Hildyard said.
Since October, the department has rolled out 220 additional electronic monitors and a system-wide upgrade to make sure responses are effective and efficient.
This led to a 30 per cent increase in monitoring adults on bail who can be tracked 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
$2.2 million in additional investment was also put into the program in 2025-26.
“We made a commitment to do all that we can to help tackle domestic, family and sexual violence, to hold perpetrators to account and to intervene and respond to the needs of survivors so they can recover and heal,” Hildyard said.
“This is why our government established the Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence. The findings report present our government and indeed our whole state with a generational opportunity to methodically, collaboratively and strategically drive long-term, impactful reform and we embrace it.”
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