Australian Bureau of Statistics
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SHARED CARE PARENTING ARRANGEMENTS SINCE THE 2006 FAMILY LAW REFORMS: REPORT TO THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S DEPARTMENT


DASHBOARD METADATA

Geographic Coverage	Frequency	Data Availability
National New South Wales Victoria Queensland Western Australia South Australia Tasmania ACT Northern Territory Regional LGA ASGC Remoteness Other	More than annual Annual 2-4 yearly Less than 5 yearly Once only Ad hoc	Detailed publication / report publicly available Data cubes / spreadsheets publicly available Agency annual report Customised data - free upon request1 Customised data - charged consultancy1 Not published - may be available on request1 Not publicly available

[1] May be subject to release conditions

DETAILED METADATA

Contact

Data custodian: Australian Government Attorney-General’s Department.

Agency responsible for collecting the data: Commissioned research undertaken by Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales.

Contact: for data access requests: Australian Government Attorney-General’s Department, Commonwealth Copyright Administration.

Address: Attorney-General’s Department, 3–5 National Circuit, Barton, ACT, 2600

Telephone: 02 6141 6666

Facsimile: n/a

Email: n/a

Internet: http://www.ag.gov.au

Contact for questions about the research: Professor Ilan Katz, Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052.

Telephone: 02 9385 7800

Email: ilan.katz@unsw.edu.au


Publications
http://www.ag.gov.au/www/agd/agd.nsf/Page/Families_FamilyRelationshipServicesOverviewofPrograms_ResearchProjectsonSharedCareParentingandFamilyViolence?open&query=Family%20violence%20and%20family%20law


Purpose

These surveys formed part of the research undertaken to inform the Australian Government’s understanding of the implications of the changes to the 2006 Family Law Reforms on Shared Care Parenting, and the circumstances under which shared care arrangements work, and do not work, in the best interests of the child.

FDV is not the focus of this research; however some information was collected about the impacts of violence and safety concerns on care arrangements.

Description

The Report to the Australian Government Attorney-General’s Department is based on analysis of a range of both primary and secondary data sources, of which these surveys are part.

Collection Type

Survey

Family and Domestic Violence related content (data items collected)

Data Item	Respondent (Victim1)	Respondent (Secondary victim1)	Offender
Demographics
Age
Sex
Indigenous Status
Disability
Country of Birth
Language spoken
Employment
Education
Income
Geography
Other
Personal data item
Services used / referrals to services counselling legal financial housing crisis other
Health factors pregnancy alcohol use / substance use mental illness
FDV-related perceptions satisfaction with police response seriousness/ regarded as criminal whether problem in neighbourhood feelings of safety / fear	For self and children
Prior history of victimisation / offending
Known outcomes application for violence order violence order issued offender charged offender went to court offender found guilty offender sentence type child protection involvement time off work / economic costs medical treatment received / type changed routine other	Presence of AVO
Other personal data items	Type of care arrangement; Time since separation; Time in previous relationship; Re-partnering status for self and ex-partner; Degree of co-operation and conflict between ex-partners	Who they live with most of the time; Children’s views of parental conflict

1 Respondent may or may not have experienced FDV.

Data Item	Incident
Location home workplace school/place of education/institution public place other
Relationship between parties married/de facto spouse current / former partner/boyfriend/girlfriend parent-child sibling other member of household other relatives relationships of personal or financial dependency
Weapon use type of weapon
Alcohol involved Substance use involved
Physical injury sustained type of injury
Reported to police reasons for not reporting
Other

Definition of Family and Domestic Violence

No formal definition used. Respondents’ own understandings and experiences of Family and domestic Violence influenced the data.

Aspects of FDV captured in the data are:

• Physical abuse

Conceptual Framework Element / Sub-element	Amount of Information Available
	None	Some	Detailed
Context
Environmental Factors
Individual pyscho-social factors
Risk
Community prevalence
Community incidence
Understandings and acknowledgments of risk and safety
Incident
Responses
Informal responses
Formal system responses
Impacts/Outcomes
Programs, Research & Evaluation

10,000 surveys sent via the Child Support Agency, were sent to a stratified random sample of registered clients and, as far as possible, their matched ex-partners in three groups as follows:

1. Those who were in actively involved in shared care from July 1 2007 to June 30 2008 (n=5000)
2. Those who used to be in shared before July 1 2007 (n=2500)
3. Those not in shared care at the time of selection for the survey (n=2500).

Scope / target population

Parents and children in shared-care or other post-separation arrangements pre-and post- implementation of the 2006 Family Law Reforms.

Coverage

Parent survey
The list used to select Solicitor’s offices to distribute surveys to parents excluded Tasmanian offices.

Survey of children and young people
The sample is not necessarily representative of children and young people in shared care or in other post-separation arrangements as the websites used to distribute surveys are used by children who have concerns about their circumstances though not necessarily related to shared care or post-parental separation issues. Responses may be a bellwether for concerns about such arrangements when they are not working well and where there are issues about the quality of the relationship between children and their parents, and between the parents.

Geographic coverage and disaggregation

National

Data available for:
Australia

Frequency / Timing

Once only

Collection history

Collection commenced: late 2009.

Breaks in series: n/a

Other details: n/a

Data availability / Dissemination

Requests for further access to data can be made to the Australian Government Attorney-General’s Department.

Other data sources held by this agency

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (IRIS)
Community Legal Services Information System (CLSIS)
Family violence and family law in Australia; the experiences and views of children and adults from families who separated post-1995 and post-2006