Rapists could face life in prison and barristers be prevented from ‘putting victims on trial’ under Victorian Labor reforms

Premier Ben Carroll (right) says the government ‘must act on the violence that is killing a Victorian woman every two weeks’. Photograph: James Ross/AAP

Rapists could face life sentences and lawyers would be prevented from asking humiliating questions of victim-survivors under a suite of Victorian Labor pre-election commitments designed to reduce violence against women.

The premier, Ben Carroll, on Sunday announced an election commitment to legislate a new form of manslaughter covering cases in which a person takes their own life as a result of family violence, as well as a new offence covering perpetrators abandoning a victim in need of medical care.