The Coalition and Greens will not attend the unveiling of the government’s new coercive control education campaign on Wednesday,despite an invitation from the premier’s office and a draft media release trumpeting support from the opposition and crossbench.
A social media tile from the government’s coercive control advertising campaign.NSW Government
The Minns government is under pressure to rapidly respond to the scourge of violence against women after the alleged murder of Molly Ticehurst in Forbes on April 22. Her ex-partner was on bail for sexual assault charges at the time of her death.
Coercive control is a form of domestic abuse involving patterns of behaviour that can be physical,sexual,psychological,emotional or financial. Controlling what someone wears,limiting access to money,tracking their location and incessant texting all constitute the abusive behaviour.
The premier has ordered a review of bail laws and will hold an urgent cabinet meeting on Friday,which will be briefed by former Australian of the Year Rosie Batty,whose son was killed in 2014 by his father.
The government’s new education campaign is being rolled out ahead of the introduction of coercive control laws in July,which faced a wave of criticism from advocates when they were passed by the Coalition in 2022.
Online and TV advertising from the government’s coercive control advertising campaign
The laws,which were championed by the then attorney-general Mark Speakman,created a new offence for coercive control with potential jail sentences of up to seven years.
However,dozens of domestic violence advocates,including peak body Domestic Violence NSW,raised concerns about the laws,arguing they set the bar for conviction unreasonably high.
In October 2022,a coalition of more than 40 women’s and legal advocacy groups,including the Women’s Legal Service,made a joint submission to an inquiry into the bill which criticised its “narrow application” and raised concerns about “insufficient” training for police and legal practitioners ahead of its introduction in 2024.
Online and TV advertising from the government’s coercive control advertising campaign
The Minns government has devised an advertising campaign to “raise public awareness and understanding” of coercive control,according to a draft media release of the announcement obtained by theHerald.
The government planned to announce the advertising campaign at a press conference on Wednesday,with Deputy Premier Prue Car to be joined by deputy Liberal Party leader Natalie Ward,Greens spokesperson on gendered violence Abigail Boyd and some of the crossbench.
However,by Tuesday afternoon,the Liberals and Greens had withdrawn,with Boyd saying the government needed to listen to victim-survivors,frontline workers and other experts,“not more of the same arrogance on high”.
“I will not be attending the Labor’s government’s media event,which would only serve to provide them with a veneer of credibility to this half-baked long-overdue advertising campaign,” she said.
Online and TV advertising from the government’s coercive control advertising
Boyd urged the government to slow down the implementation of the coercive control offence to “allow a safe,phased,transparent and accountable approach”.
“Yet here we are,two months out from the offence being implemented,and like a cat with a dead mouse in its mouth,the government has delivered a poorly developed social media marketing campaign and looking for praise,” she said.
A Liberal Party spokesman said Ward was unavailable.
Liberal leader Mark Speakman said:“The opposition is concerned that key details of the campaign have yet to be disclosed,and that not enough is being done for CALD[culturally and linguistically diverse] and Indigenous communities to promote education about coercive control.”
Minister for Women and Prevention of Domestic Violence Jodie Harrison said:“This campaign was recommended unanimously by a bipartisan parliamentary committee and has been developed with over 70 stakeholders including victim survivors.”
“We’re determined to send a unified message that coercive control is not acceptable in any form.”
With the tagline “it’s not love,it’s coercive control. Know the signs of abuse”,the campaign uses the stories of four fictional women subjected to insidious control across four television and two radio advertisements,and social media campaigns.
A social media tile from the government’s coercive control advertising campaign.NSW Government
The draft media release said the campaign had been developed with “over 70 stakeholders” from the Coercive Control Implementation and Evaluation Taskforce and 10 associated reference groups,including victim survivors.
Karen Bevan,the chief executive of Full Stop Australia,will be at the government’s announcement on Wednesday. While Full Stop was one of the many advocacy groups which had raised concerns about the legislation in the past,she said the government’s education campaign was still a welcome step.
“It is a complex piece of legislation but the government has done a lot of work around building this campaign so that we can educate people,” she said. But she said criticisms of the bill,including what advocates say is the high bar for convictions,remained valid.
On Tuesday,Speakman called for the government to introduce a suite of changes including expanded use of electronic monitoring devices and removing the ability for court registrars to grant bail for serious personal violence charges in cases where it is opposed by police or the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Speakman has also supported calls for a state-based royal commission.
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