Mandatory and additional orders

All Apprehended Violence Orders (AVOs) have mandatory orders, also known as 'standard orders' or 'Orders about behaviour'. 

There are also other optional 'additional orders' that an applicant can ask for.

​Mandator​y orders/Orders about behaviour

There are three mandatory orders that are included in every Apprehended Violence Order (AVO). These are often referred to as 'standard orders' or orders 1 a, b & c.

The mandatory orders are orders that are designed to protect the protected person, but they don’t require you to do anything that you wouldn't usually be expected to do.

The mandatory orders also protect a person who is in a domestic relationship with the protected person, including:

• people in their family, even if they don't live with them (including children)
• their current spouse or partner, or ex-spouses or ex-partners 
• in the case of an Aboriginal person or a Torres Strait Islander, someone who is part of your extended family or kin according to the Indigenous kinship system of your culture.

From 3 December 2016, a domestic relationship also covers the relationship between someone's current partner and their former partner.

The mandatory orders don’t prohibit contact between you and the protect person. If an AVO is made against you with the mandatory orders only, you can be in a relationship with or live with the protected person. 

The orders state:

From 27 March 2021, ‘Orders about behaviour’ also include that the Defendant must not harm an animal that belongs to or is in the possession of the protected person.

Additional orders

There are a number of additional orders that a court can include in an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO). 

The Court will make additional orders if it decides that they are necessary in the circumstances to ensure the safety and protection of the protected person. 

All of the additional orders can’t be made in the same AVO, as some of the orders conflict with others. For example, the applicant could not have an order which stops you from making any contact except through your lawyer and an order which allows some contact between you and the protected person.

If you want to consent to the mandatory/standard orders, but do not ​​agree to some (or all) of the additional orders the ap​plicant has asked for, you should tell the Court which orders you don't agree with and why.

Additional orders are listed under the headings:

• Orders about contact
  
• Orders about family law and parenting
  
• Orders about where you cannot go
  
• Orders about weapons. 
  

Orders about contact

This means that you can't approach the protected person or contact them by phone, text message, email, writing, through a third party, or in any other way, except through your lawyer.

This means that you can't be with the protected person if you have had drugs or alcohol in the last 12 hours.

This means that you can't try and find the protected person by any method including online, by phone or asking anyone.

Orders about family law and parenting

This means that you can't approach or contact the protected person by phone, text message, email, writing, through a third party, or in any other way, except through your lawyer, or to go to court approved counselling or mediation or conciliation or as ordered by a court or as agreed with the other parent. Order 6(e) is an alternative to order 6(d) where there is an agreement in writing with another person who has parental responsibility for the children, such as a grandparent.

Orders about where you cannot go

This means that you can't live with the protected person or live at a place that is written in the order. A court can make this order regardless of whether you own the home or are named on the lease. 

This means you can't come to the protected person's home, their work or another address (if specified).

This means that you must stay a certain distance away from the protected person's home, work or another address (if specified).

Orders about weapons

This means that you must not have any firearms or prohibited weapons.​ 

Even if this order is not made, you can't have a firearms licence or keep any firearms when an AVO is made against you. For more information, see Consequences of an Apprehended Violence Order. 

If orders 7, 8, or 9 are made and you need to collect your belongings from your residence you can ask the Court to make a Property Recovery Order. This order will allow you to go to your home and retrieve your belongings without contravening the AVO. The Court may order that the police or another person must come with you. For more information about Property Recovery Orders, see Recovering personal property.

Orders made before 3 December 2016​

On 3 December 2016, the law about AVO orders and how they were written changed. 

Before 3 December 2016, the mandatory orders prohibited the defendant from:

Additional orders that could be included in an AVO made before 3 December 2016 were:

This means that you can't live with the protected person.

This means that you can't go to the home or work address of the protected person, or another address (if specified). It is important to note that this order follows the protected person. If the protected person moves, the AVO follows them to their new address and you will be restricted from going there.

This means that you must stay a certain distance away from the protected person's home, work or another address (if specified). The applicant can nominate how far, for example 50 metres or 100 metres. If the protected person moves, the AVO 'follows' them to their new address and you will be restricted from going there. You should think carefully about how this order might affect you. For example, if your workplace is near the protected person's workplace you may want to argue against the distance that the protected person is asking for if it will prevent you from attending your workplace.

This means that you can't approach or contact the protected person by phone, text message, email, in writing, through a third party or in any other way except through your lawyer. However, if there is a written agreement between you and the protected person, or if family law orders or directions have been made for counselling, conciliation or mediation, you can contact the protected person in the way that has been agreed or is set out in those family law orders/directions.

This means that you can't contact the protected person by phone, text message, email, in writing, through a third party or in any other way, except through your lawyer, or if a family law parenting order has been made.​

This means that you can't approach or contact the protected person by phone, text message, email, in writing, through a third party or in any other way except through your lawyer.

This means that you must give the police any guns or gun licences that you have. Even if this order is not made, you cannot have a firearms licence or keep any firearms when you have an AVO against you. If a Provisional, Interim or Final AVO has been made against you, and you have firearms or a firearms licence, you should get legal advice.

This means that you can't go near the school or childcare centre where the protected person may go.

This means that you can't approach or go where the protected person is, or where they live or work, if you have had drugs or alcohol in the last 12 hours.

​​This means that you can't do anything to the protected person's property.