Rachel spoke on a family violence motion which would create a standalone offence for coercive control. She acknowledged the deeply disturbing prevalence of family and intimate partner violence, and its well-established connection with coercive control. Rachel spoke to the evidence arising from stakeholder consultation and law changes in New South Wales, noting that effectiveness of a standalone offence is contentious and could be underutilised or otherwise cause harmful, unintended consequences.
Wednesday the 3rd of December 2025,
Victorian Legislative Council
Rachel Payne (South-Eastern Metropolitan):
I rise to speak on motion 1191 in Ms Crozier’s name on behalf of Legalise Cannabis Victoria. This motion follows the Crimes Amendment (Coercive Control) Bill 2025, introduced by the opposition to create a new offence in relation to coercive control. That is where a person engages in a course of conduct against an intimate partner that involves abusive behaviour and intends the conduct to coerce their intimate partner to comply with the person’s demands or to control them. We are concerned that this bill is a blunt instrument for a complex problem. Despite being modelled on New South Wales legislation, it does not include safeguards that are designed to mitigate unintended consequences that would harm vulnerable communities. While the motion before us today is not this bill and we do agree with encouraging this government to consider the appropriateness of a standalone offence for coercive control, how we go about this needs to be well considered.
Prevalence of family violence “deeply disturbing”
The prevalence of family violence is deeply disturbing. Last year Victoria Police responded to 104,786 family violence incidents. That is one incident every 6 minutes – the highest number on record. The LGA with the highest rates of family violence is Casey, in my electorate. Data from the Crime Statistics Agency also shows us that family violence intervention orders are being repeatedly breached. Between July 2023 and June 2024, 2010 people alleged to have breached a family violence intervention order had previously been arrested for a breach, and a large number of those were within 30 days. Alarmingly, these rates are increasing. In the last six years, there has been a 64 per cent increase in people repeatedly breaching family violence intervention orders.
We need to consider where we can strengthen our family violence laws in Victoria. Currently in Victoria coercive and controlling behaviour is recognised as part of the definition of family violence in the Family Violence Protection Act 2008. This allows for coercive control to be addressed through family violence intervention orders, which, if breached, constitute a criminal offence. The relationship between family violence and coercive control is well established. The changes to legislation in New South Wales mentioned in this motion were prompted by a review that found coercive control was a precursor to 97 per cent of intimate partner homicides between 2000 and 2018.
Effectiveness of proposed legislation “contentious”
Whether the creation of a standalone offence for coercive control would be more effective than the existing approach in Victoria is contentious. Several stakeholders made their position known in the 2022 consultation on the national principles to address coercive control. They were asked to consider whether these principles effectively described key issues to consider when deciding whether or how to criminalise coercive control and the potential unintended consequences of criminalisation. At the time the Federation of Community Legal Centres, the Law Institute of Victoria, Women’s Legal Service Victoria, the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service and Domestic Violence Victoria all made submissions opposing the creation of a standalone offence to criminalise coercive control.
This consultation found that a focus should be placed upon shifting from the development of a specific offence to a broader legislative response to coercive control. This consultation also found that potential unintended consequences of criminalising coercive control include overincarceration, retraumatisation, avenues for manipulation and exploitation by perpetrators and reinforcing the issue of misidentification, particularly for groups of people who experience discrimination in the justice system.
Evidence lacking, unintended consequences likely
In their submission the Law Institute of Victoria noted that:
Criminalisation of coercive control is likely to have disproportionate and detrimental adverse consequences for disadvantaged groups.
Research demonstrates that criminal sanctions in response to FDV may lead to victim-survivors being less willing to engage in the justice system, either due to past negative experiences with the criminal justice system or a desire to avoid incarceration or impose a criminal record on the perpetrator.
They also noted that:
As of yet, there is no evidence to suggest that introducing a standalone offence of coercive control increases women’s safety outcomes or improves their access to justice.
Standalone laws in New South Wales underutilised
But since this time a number of Australian jurisdictions have gone ahead to introduce a standalone offence of coercive control. Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia have all introduced the standalone offence. Meanwhile, Western Australia and the ACT have publicly committed to doing so in the future. In New South Wales, between when the legislation came into force on 1 July 2024 and 19 September 2025, they recorded 297 incidents of coercive control, but only nine charges have been laid. As of 19 September none of these charges had been tested by the courts. The three finalised in court related to two withdrawals by the prosecution and one guilty plea.
While we understand that the government is exploring making coercive control a standalone criminal offence, we agree that it is important that the work is not rushed in a way that will result in unintended consequences or the offence being underutilised, like it is in New South Wales. When New South Wales criminalised coercive control, it also put in place protective measures including but not limited to the establishment of a taskforce to provide ongoing advice on the legislation and multiple statutory reviews.
‘Timely’ measures welcome, but not ‘rushed’
We support the Victorian government considering the introduction of coercive controls in Victoria and doing so in a timely manner that considers appropriate protective measures. However, ‘timely’ does not mean rushed. There is a real risk that a standalone coercive control offence could end up harming more than it could help. We need to do the work to make sure it does not.
Related:
- Misidentification of family violence aggressors
- Police responses to family and domestic violence
- South-east MP welcomes funds to support domestic violence survivors in the Victorian budget
- Establish a family violence taskforce
- Rise in family violence intervention order breaches
- Gendered Violence Accountability
- Gendered Violence staffing in Victoria
