A PROPOSED law aimed to protect abused children may push vulnerable Ballarat women further into violent relationships, Child and Family Services Ballarat chief executive Kevin Zibell has said.The organisation has joined its Victorian counterparts in urging the state government to reconsider adopting “failure to protect” legislation.An election promise, the law reform is up for consideration in the state parliament in October.According to a Department of Justice discussion paper the “failure to protect” law aims to create two separate offences for adults who fail to take action in the following circumstances:They know or believe that a child who they have custody or care of or live in the same household as is suffering sexual abuse or abuse that may result in serious injury or death; a child they were living in the same household as dies due to child abuse and the adult was aware of the abuse and its seriousness.The aim of the law is to create a positive obligation for certain adults to take active steps to respond to child abuse that they are aware of. The law could also be used “when it was unclear which of the adults present when the child died actively caused the child’s death”.But Mr Zibell said the legislation was based on a complete misconception of the general pattern of abuse in families.“The people most likely charged under these laws will be women with abusive partners who victimise them and their children concurrently,” Mr Zibell said.“It is foolish to think that criminalising their enforced silence could ever provide a stronger incentive ... to contact police or social workers.“Indeed, the most likely effect will be to make carers even more afraid of approaching them due to the possible consequences.”Mr Zibell said the legislation’s primary effect would be to punish the victims of abuse while providing no increased protection to children at all. “These punishments are likely to fall with the greatest harshness on the most marginalised groups of society, for it is they who have the most difficulty in making use of police and social worker’s protection,” he said.