The Perrottet government introduced a draft bill in July that would enshrine coercive control as a crime by creating an offence to carry out repeated abusive behaviours towards a current or former intimate partner.
The NSW government has tabled a draft bill to make coercive control a criminal offence.iStock
A solicitor at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions,Melinda Graczol,speaking on a panel on criminalising coercive control at a Law Society of NSW conference last week,said the way police treat domestic violence did not suit patterns of behaviour such as coercive control.
“Police currently treat domestic violence cases on an incident response,and we’re moving quite away from an incident response,” Graczol said.
“It’s going to take a lot of education and culture change for police,and we’d like to see some funding and time put into that.”
Graczol said she supported the creation of a criminal offence,but it needed consultation and education not “a stab in the dark”.
NSW Police received 140,000 calls for assistance about domestic and family violence in the year to April 2022.
Domestic Violence NSW’s interim chief executive Elise Phillips told the panel the government had only allocated $700,000 in the last state budget for police and magistrates resourcing and training,and there was no indication there would be additional resources to support the coercive control reforms.
Phillips said police in NSW had one week of training in domestic and family violence out of 16 weeks at the Police Academy,more than any other area of law. But there was no ongoing training,and Phillips said she was concerned about the level of education among long-serving police officers.
“There isn’t any mandatory training in relation to domestic and family violence for police after they leave the academy – it’s up to the individual officer who has an interest to volunteer,” Phillips said.
“We know victims are reluctant to report their experiences to police because they may not have faith they’ll receive an appropriate response.”
A spokesperson for NSW Police toldThe Sun-Herald that officers responded to incidents of domestic violence every day,and identifying coercive control was an important part of that,but confirmed there was no targeted training on the topic.
“Currently,there is no training package specific to coercive control provided to police recruits or serving police officers,” the spokesperson said.
“The NSW Police Force will work with relevant government partners and agencies to determine the appropriate level and format of training for recruits and police officers once the new legislation is finalised and comes into effect.”
A spokesperson for Deputy Premier and Minister for Police Paul Toole said the bill was still out for consultation,but the draft proposed “a lengthy period for training,education and awareness for police,the courts,service providers,and the general community” before the law would commence.
Labor’s police spokesperson Walt Secord backed the call for “proper and ongoing education and support for police”,adding that education was needed in schools,the judiciary and workplaces as well.
“By helping police officers better understand this area of law,they will be able to properly collect evidence and see the early signs of coercive control when they enter situations,” Secord said.
“Police officers must have the tools to recognise that all domestic abuse is not physical and know how to respond accordingly.”
The Police Association,the trade union for police officers,declined to comment.
into NSW Police responses to domestic and family violence found that while police have almost doubled their domestic violence specialist workforce,there was insufficient data and record keeping by police to determine if this was adequate.
In the year to April 2022,NSW Police received 140,000 calls for assistance about domestic and family violence.
The NSW government committed to criminalising coercive control after a 2020 parliamentary enquiry found legislation was inadequate and made 23 recommendations for legal changes,including the introduction of the specific offence.
The new offence would carry a sentence of up to seven years in jail and the bill would also introduce a definition of “domestic abuse” to the Crimes Act 2007.
The government plans to introduce the bill to parliament in spring and will take submissions until August 31.
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