Coercive control should be a crime to stop ‘deathly pandemic’ of domestic violence, NSW MPs say
Coercive control should be made a crime to stop the “silent, hidden and deathly pandemic” of “domestic terrorism”, a group of New South Wales MPs from across the politician spectrum says.
Creating a standalone offence of coercive control is the central and unanimous recommendation of a parliamentary committee that has been investigating the issue since October.
“It is clear that coercive control is a factor and red flag for the horrific and preventable murder deaths of Australian women and children – some 29 murders in 2020 alone in NSW,” the committee’s report, tabled in parliament on Wednesday, says.
“It is incumbent on government ... to intervene, where behaviour exists that is not consensual and breaches human rights and is known to be a factor in potentially preventable domestic abuse related homicide deaths.”
Coercive control is broadly defined as a pattern of behaviours used to intimidate, humiliate, surveil and control another person.
The committee chair, Liberal MP Natalie Ward, described it in her foreword as “domestic terrorism”.
“It is no exaggeration, it is a silent, hidden and deathly pandemic,” she said.
Advocates say the behaviour isn’t covered by existing domestic violence crimes, making it hard to police and prevent.
Some domestic violence sector workers who gave evidence to the committee expressed concern the process was rushed and there needed to be wider consultation, especially of Indigenous and multicultural communities. The committee says the classification as a crime should not be implemented until police, frontline workers and others have gone through a “considerable prior program” of education, training and consultation.
The report says that systemic, whole-of-government reforms are needed to implement the changes and support victims.
As a priority, the definition of domestic abuse in apprehended violence order legislation should be made clearer and include coercive and controlling behaviour, the committee says.
This would make it easier for victims to get protection orders from courts where their partner is subjecting
them to coercive control.
The Greens MP Abigail Boyd, who sat on the committee, said the evidence showed that coercive and controlling behaviours were present in most dangerous domestic abuse situations.
But she said that “decades of sexism” within the police and judicial systems had left people wary of the justice system.
Indigenous people were understandably afraid that more criminal laws would lead to increasing rates of overincarceration and child removal, she said.
“Although we absolutely need to criminalise coercive control, and we can’t delay in moving that work forward, we also need to get it right,” she said.
“There needs to be whole-of-society reforms as a wraparound to this legislative change, beginning immediately and not stopping until there are zero domestic homicides in our state.”