A national conversation about coercive control and its impact on family violence has the ability to strengthen the Tasmanian response to the insidious form of violence, according to the Tasmanian Women's Legal Service chief.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Just under a year after the highly publicised murder of Queensland woman Hannah Clarke, Queensland moved to criminalise coercive control on Wednesday.
That same day the Australian senate passed a motion to recognise the significance and severity of coercive control.
Fighting Back against family violence
"Coercive control and persistent emotional or psychological abuse is abuse in its own right, and an indicator of future physical violence," the agreed upon motion said.
It also recognised the Tasmanian laws with provisions for criminalising coercive control and called for the federal government to coordinate a national discussion regarding criminalising the form of violence.
The Tasmanian offence "persistent family violence" has been part of the states criminal code since 2004.
WLST chief Yvette Cehtel said since the law being introduced a conversation in the state had been started, but with a national approach there was scope for a cultural transition pushed from a federal level.
"It could start an important cultural conversation about family violence and coercive control," she said.
Ms Cehtel pointed to a national coercive control discussion in the United Kingdom and Scotland who have pioneered the criminalising of the offence.
She said in those places resourcing was critical in educating the public about the importance of the charge, and should Australia proceed with a national approach, similar resourcing an education was critical for the discussion to be effective.
With that discussion, Ms Cehtel said, an understanding of what coercive control actually means could permeate a whole of society psyche - from judges, to police, to the public - something that could be done better in Tasmania.
"What's missing here is the application of the emotional abuse provision," she said.
However, Ms Cehtel said Tasmanian judges were helping the conversation along.
"There has been an area of really strong leadership from the bench," she said.
Ms Cehtel said the Tasmanian Supreme Court has held a strong stance against persistent family violence, and convictions flowed as a result.
But the most recent data available showed that in 2018-19 the overwhelming majority of family violence defendants fronted up to the Magistrates' Courts.
Of 13396 defendants, 92 per cent were heard in the Magistrates' Courts and 75 per cent were proven guilty.
In Tasmania, for persistent family violence to be the resulting charge there needs to be three proven incidence of violence, otherwise the charge may amount to assault, sexual assault or related offences, property damage or breach of violence order.
What do you think? Send us a letter to the editor:
