We are seeing growing momentum in recognising and responding to all forms of domestic and family violence across Australia, including coercive control.
Unlike incidents of physical violence, coercive control is a cumulative, often silent and externally invisible pattern of behaviour that creates fear, dependence and compliance. Many of Australia’s states and territories have either already or are moving towards criminalising coercive control, and the urgency of these changes cannot be overstated.
Quite simply, coercive control legislation can help keep victims of abuse alive in giving authorities the power to intervene earlier, before domestic homicides occur.
NSW was the first state in Australia to criminalise coercive control, and the laws have been in effect since 1 July 2024. While charging rates are continuing to grow incrementally from a low beginning base, community understanding of the behaviour and offence is now much more widespread. The women we support in our shelter network, and other survivor advocates I speak with, regularly refer to themselves more often as victims of coercive control, rather than domestic violence.
Early concerns about greater misidentification of the victims of domestic violence as being the abusers do not appear to be coming to pass. In 2026, a formal statutory review, inviting public submissions, will commence. It may well be broadened further to capture other types of relationships, clarify certain aspects of abuse, and include other tweaks. Queensland also criminalised coercive control in 2025, with legislation taking effect this May. The home state of Hannah Clarke and her children, whose horrific murders alerted the nation to the dangers of coercive control in early 2020. In September 2025, South Australia legislated to criminalise coercive control for current or former intimate partners, and there are moves in Western Australia too.
Victoria
We are now seeing a significant call for these legislative protections in Victoria.
This is significant in a state that has long been viewed as leading the nation in reforms related to domestic violence. The extraordinary advocacy of Rosie Batty, the Royal Commission of 2016, the coordination and information-sharing processes, and the collaboration of the Police and services. It’s clear from several studies undertaken with victim survivors that the vast majority of them want to see coercive control criminalised, and that many believe the law is the only tool capable of stopping their abuser. It’s been a curious piece of the puzzle to leave out to this point, given the national push to end violence within a generation. That’s not a pie-in-the-sky aspiration – it’s set out as a goal in Australia’s National Plan to end Violence Against Women and their Children.
Critics of law reform often raise fears about complexity and unintended consequences. These concerns are reasonable and always deserve careful consideration. But evidence from places with similar legislation shows that, with proper training for police, judiciary, court services and DFV sector services, these laws can be enforced fairly and effectively. The alternative of keeping the status quo simply leaves victims trapped in limbo, with the old law reflecting an outdated understanding of domestic violence. We also need to acknowledge that people experience harm as a result of choosing to do nothing. Victoria has already taken steps to prepare the system for this reform, and those significant and powerful efforts should not stall at the finish line.
Criminalisation plays a crucial symbolic role. Law is one of Australia’s clearest tools for articulating the behaviours we value and what we condemn. It nails our colours to the wall, not only for victims and perpetrators, but to the entire community.
Victoria has a window of opportunity and an urgent responsibility to continue at the forefront of domestic and family violence response in Australia. Criminalising coercive control is the next necessary and critical step in that journey. It would provide earlier intervention, stronger protections, and a legal framework that can, quite simply, keep people alive.
Coercive control is happening in our homes, our neighbourhoods, and our communities across Australia. The question is not whether we recognise it; it is whether we choose to act. We can build an Australia we all want to live in, where women and children flourish, free from abuse.