Western Australia's restraining order system makes thousands of decisions every year that can remove people from their homes, restrict contact with their children and cancel firearms licences, and it protects thousands of people from violence. Yet the State publishes almost nothing about how those decisions end.
This dossier examines the Restraining Orders Act 1997 (WA) provision by provision, maps the path from a one-sided interim order to a final order, and brings together the court statistics, Ombudsman and Parliamentary findings and case law that are publicly available. It separates what the evidence establishes from what remains unknown, tests claims on both sides of the debate, and sets out a practical reform package, a public-interest submission and a staged implementation plan that starts with what existing systems can already do.
Download the dossier (PDF, 47 pages)
Key findings
- An interim family violence or violence restraining order becomes final if the respondent does not return a form within 21 days. No magistrate looks at it again.
- The last published breakdown, from the WA Ombudsman in 2015, found 6,351 interim orders became final without returning to court, against 2,867 made final after a hearing.
- Since 31 March 2025, a final order or a conduct agreement, which is not an admission, disqualifies a person from holding a firearms licence for five years after it ends.
- There is no reliable data on how often applications are false. There is evidence that victims are sometimes wrongly named as respondents.
- Many improvements need no new law, no new computer system and no new agency.
What is inside
- Executive briefing
- Full forensic dossier
- Legislative audit matrix
- Evidence and case-law register
- Data and accountability plan
- Reform proposal and statutory reform schedule
- Implementation feasibility and staged plan
- Public opinion article
- Public-interest reform submission
Read the article: Silence Makes Law
Independent research and public-interest analysis, not legal advice. Law and figures as verified at 9 October 2026.