Meagan Prabhakar from Women’s Community Shelters outlines the case for legislating coercive control in Victoria, following similar laws that came into effect in NSW in 2024.
“But he didn’t hit me, so it’s not domestic violence.”
It was not that long ago that this statement was common. That women would present to a crisis shelter thinking it wasn’t “bad enough” or would never present at all because they didn’t think that the controlling relationship they were living in was domestic violence.
We’ve come a long way as a country. We now recognise that domestic and family violence is not just physical. That abusive and controlling behaviours – including emotional, financial, psychological, sexual and physical – which create fear, compliance and dependency is domestic and family violence.
“I feel like I’m walking on eggshells” “I don’t have access to any of the money” “I feel crazy, like I’m losing myself” “He doesn’t want me seeing my family and friends”
This is coercive control.
At Women’s Community Shelters, we supported over 2,000 women last year to access safety in our refuges across NSW, where coercive control has been criminalised. We know firsthand the difference that it makes to say to a woman who describes coercive control, “This is not just morally wrong what happened to you. This is a crime,” or “He can’t get away with this abuse just because he didn’t lay a finger on you.”
This is life-changing.
Being able to say to a woman who has experienced coercive control that it is illegal, it is not acceptable, it is a crime, has a profound impact. In fact, it is oftenbthe moment a woman realises that what they have experienced is indeed domestic violence.
For many women that we see in our shelters, they are able to heal and recover, emboldened by the knowledge that what happened to them was not ok and is a crime. Sometimes that alone, in and of itself, is power enough for a woman to seek safety and leave a violent relationship.
Law is one of Australia’s clearest tools for articulating the behaviours we value as a society and what we condemn. It makes a clear statement, not only for victim-survivors and perpetrators, but for the entire community.
While we continue to have these conversations about changing attitudes towards what constitutes domestic violence, when we change legislation we are able to achieve societal education, awareness and change on another level.
We cannot underestimate the power of that message to victim-survivors.
NSW was the first state in Australia to criminalise coercive control, with legislation coming into effect in July 2024; since then, QLD has also criminalised coercive control, and SA has committed to criminalisation. Women’s Community Shelters CEO, Annabelle Daniel OAM, who was instrumental in the legislation of coercive control in NSW and sits on the NSW Coercive Control Implementation and Evaluation Taskforce, states
“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.”
Women’s Community Shelters welcomes the Victorian Government’s introduction of Coercive Control legislation and the bipartisan support to ensure coercive control is criminalised in Victoria.
As we establish the first refuges in Mornington Peninsula and Hume, Victoria, we want to be able to say to the Victorian women who are seeking shelter, that coercive control is a crime.
There are understandably concerns raised by the domestic, family and sexual violence sector about how coercive control can be weaponised by perpetrators to cause further harm to victim-survivors.
This is true. We need to acknowledge and anticipate that people who use coercive control may weaponise any new system to continue their pattern of power and control. But we cannot, and should not, allow that to be the reason why we do not criminalise coercive control.
We cannot let perfect be the enemy of good.
We must start somewhere. Legislating coercive control is a critical first step. But we must also continue forward: refine, review, deeply listen, understand, adapt and change, to always be alert and responsive to the reality that perpetrators who use coercive control will weaponise whatever system they have available to them.
But we should not allow that to stop us. If we do nothing, we maintain the status quo.
Coercive control is happening across our country. It is abuse, and it should be recognised as such, in every state and territory in Australia.
We want to see a country where women and children flourish, and live a life free from abuse. Legislating coercive control in Victoria will be a critical step towards achieving that vision.
We must not allow perfection to get in the way of good for Victorian women and children.