00:00It's an insidious pattern of isolation, threats and surveillance, robbing victim survivors
00:08of their freedom.
00:09Controlling when you shower, controlling how you spend money, controlling when you go to
00:13work or monitoring your phone or monitoring how you dress.
00:17Coercive control can escalate over time and it's a key risk factor in domestic violence
00:23homicides.
00:24Every day police charge people with family domestic sexual violence offences and these
00:31rates are going up, not down.
00:33The horrific 2020 murders of Hannah Clarke and her three children in Brisbane thrust coercive
00:39control into the national spotlight.
00:42Queensland and New South Wales have since made the behaviour a standalone criminal offence.
00:48The ACT government has now promised to follow suit by mid next year, allowing the justice
00:54system to respond to patterns of abuse rather than specific acts.
00:59Laws have to change to accommodate and respond to our evolving understanding of domestic and
01:04family violence.
01:06The opposition leader says the government is dragging its heels, pledging to take her own
01:11bill to a vote in December.
01:13I'm disgusted that the government have taken this long.
01:17We've got jurisdictions that are making it work, why are we going slow?
01:20We need to prepare our police and courts, which that work has begun in terms of training.
01:26We also need community education.
01:28ACT policing says coercive control is almost always present in the domestic violence cases
01:35it handles.
01:36It's welcomed the promise of dedicated legislation, describing it as another tool for officers on
01:43the front line.
01:44The government says it will consult with front line services and marginalised groups to develop
01:50the laws, in the hope of tackling a hidden scourge.
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