Minister not satisfied community knows enough about coercive control for behaviour to be criminalised

WA’s family and domestic violence prevention minister has declared West Australians do not have a strong enough understanding of coercive control for the insidious form of psychological warfare to be criminalised.

Speaking at WA’s March Against Domestic and Family Violence on Monday, Sabine Winton repeatedly ruled out fast-tracking criminalising coercive control or providing a legislation timeline.

Ms Winton said she was not yet satisfied with the community’s knowledge of the issue.

“Legislation alone isn’t going to stop the violence,” she said.

“Particularly, when you’re talking about legislation on something as important as coercive control, where the majority of people in the community don’t even know what it looks like.

“Our approach is backed by the experts. The Commissioner for Victims of Crime has said before we legislate or criminalise, we must have the community understanding the behaviours that are unacceptable.”

When asked what the threshold for that community understanding would be, Ms Winton provided a non-committal answer.

It came just minutes after the daughter of Floreat double-murderer Mark Bombara spoke about the “constant” coercive and controlling behaviours her mother endured before his killings in May.

Ariel Bombara says while her father did not physically attack her mother — he made her life a living hell before his monstrous act.

Coercive control became a criminal offence in NSW from July 1.

A report last week from that State’s Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research revealed there had been 76 coercive control incidents either recorded by or reported to police in the first three months the legislation came into effect.

But of those, only two resulted in charges.

One of those was discontinued by the prosecution, while the other has resulted in a guilty plea and the offender is set to be sentenced in December.

The NSW Department of Justice said the gap between incidents and charges was often due to a lack of evidence or the willingness of victims to press charges.

Ms Winton said providing WA victim-survivors with the skills to collect adequate evidence to increase the likelihood of successful convictions was another key goal before coercive control was criminalised in the State.

“We’re committed to doing it in a staged way, in partnership with the experts,” she said.

“We are working greatly with our sector partners on key reforms. Some of those reforms are going to take some time.”

Earlier this year, the State Government invested $5 million to run a two-year public awareness campaign that promotes an understanding of coercive control in the wider community, which was developed in consultation with key stakeholders and experts.

Women’s Legal Service WA chief executive Dr Jennie Grey supported a “phased” approach to criminalisation and warned rushing the legislation could have “unintended consequences”.

Dr Grey said this could include misidentifying women who are victims of domestic violence as perpetrators.

“Unless we have frontline responders and magistrates, trained and across what coercive control means, then that change won’t happen,” she said.

“Coercive control is a dynamic that underlies all family and domestic violence, but often the only person who can really see and understand the level of coercion is the victim-survivor. For the rest of us, it’s invisible.”

Dr Grey welcomed newly enacted changes to the Restraining Order Act, which allow victims to site coercive control when applying for an order.

“That is really great to see, however unless we have the education that enables a cultural change and appropriate responses, legislation alone might not change anything.”

If you or someone you know is experiencing family violence, phone 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) or the Crisis Care Helpline on 1800 199 008.