Under Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety's (ANROWS) Research Program 2014-2016, the Queensland Centre for Domestic and Family Violence Research (CDFVR) was commissioned to investigate the enforcement of protection orders in Australia including information sharing and cross-border enforcement issues.

The National Research Agenda recognised that a multijurisdictional comparison of legal and justice system responses across Australia is required to identify how the law can work to promote the safety of women and their children. "Improving legal and justice responses to violence against women" was therefore identified as a research priority (4.1) in the ANROWS Research Priorities released in May 2014.

Following wide consultation with national stakeholders and the relevant ANROWS advisory group, three areas of interest were identified and these underpin the purpose of this research:

* enforcement of protection orders;
* information sharing specific to protection orders; and
* cross-border issues of enforcement of protection orders

Suggested citation:
Taylor, A., Ibrahim, N., Wakefield, S., & Finn, K. (2015). Domestic and family violence protection orders in Australia: An investigation of information sharing and enforcement: State of knowledge paper (ANROWS Landscapes, 16/2015). Sydney, NSW: ANROWS.