A large group of leading domestic and family violence advocates are warning that the NSW Government’s new Coercive Control Bill has some serious flaws.
The Bill, introduced by NSW Attorney General Mark Spearman, creates a stand-alone criminal offence for coercive control towards current and former partners, backed by $5.6 million in initial funding for education, training and awareness.
Coercive control is a pattern of behaviours, including physical, social, financial, psychological and technology-facilitated abuse used to harm, punish or frighten the victim.
In response to the Bill, numerous organisations, including Domestic Violence NSW (DVNSW), Wirringa Baiya Aboriginal Women’s Legal Centre, Women’s Legal Service (WLS) and Redfern Legal Centre’s Financial Abuse Service NSW, submitted an open letter to Spearman requesting a draft bill to criminalise coercive control to be opened in a second round of consultation.
In their letter, the more than 220 domestic and family violence advocates regard response to coercive controls as an important reform but note that, “the draft Bill is complex legislation, and without being given the appropriate time for consideration and consultation it has the potential to harm the very people it was designed to protect.”
Chief Executive Officer of DVNSW Renata Field commends the Government’s efforts to address domestic and family violence but says they’re “concerned that important issues raised by experts in the field have not been sufficiently heeded, and therefore a second open round of consultation is essential to support the best and safest outcomes for victim-survivors.”
In the letter, one of the key concerns raised by advocates is that the NSW Government’s Bill has no contextual definition of domestic and family abuse.
Advocates like Liz Snell, Law Reform and Policy Coordinator at Women’s Legal Service NSW, say that this could lead to confusion when the legislation is put into practice.
“We need to start first with a contextual definition of domestic and family abuse – violent, threatening or other behaviour that coerces, controls or causes fear,” says Snell. “Without a contextual definition, the focus will remain on incidents in isolation which often results in the misidentification of the person most in need of protection.”
Along with the Bill’s narrow definition of domestic and family abuse, Chief Executive Office of the Wirringa Baiya Aboriginal Women’s Legal Centre Christine Robinson says there’s no consideration of Indigenous communities, where more people can be involved in an act of violence.
“The Bill does not allow for the practices that may happen in Aboriginal communities, and the NSW Government must take into account Indigenous experiences and include them in contributing to what this Bill should look like,” Robinson says.
Advocates are also concerned that the current Bill requires proof of a specific intent to coerce or control since this places a significant burden on the prosecutor.
And the Bill is limited to intimate partner violence, which excludes many forms of abuse suffered by victim-survivors in the community.
Snell says, “With such high mental elements of intent to coerce or control there will likely be few successful prosecutions. We fear this will have the effect of providing victim-survivors with false hope of protection and embolden perpetrators to continue and even worsen their abuse as they will likely be able to act with impunity.”
In addition to the rushed consultation process leading to the Bill, advocates say the implementation period for the legislation is too short and that a successful implementation would require substantial police training and changes to the NSW justice system.
“Coercive control is an insidious form of domestic and family violence that often leads to physical abuse,” says domestic and family violence advocate Rosie Batty. “If criminalisation is not given enough time for consultation with victim-survivors and experts in the field, the complex legislation has the potential to re-traumatise the people it was designed to protect.”
Before signing off, the open letter states: “The changes we need to see in policy and legislation regarding domestic and family violence MUST be informed by those who have lived it.”
“We MUST take the time to criminalise coercive control in order to keep victim-survivors in NSW safe.”