Dr MARJORIE O'NEILL (Coogee) (12:13:53): By leave: I support this important motion proposed by my colleague the member for Shellharbour relating to the introduction of coercive control legislation in New South Wales. I wholeheartedly support this motion based on the overwhelming evidence on this subject and having consulted my constituents. They have shared their stories or sought help in the absence of legislation to address the injustice of their lived experience. While there is no single definition of domestic violence, the central element is an ongoing pattern of behaviour aimed at controlling a partner through fear by using violent and threatening behaviour.

In most cases, violent behaviour is part of a range of tactics to exercise power and control over women and their children, and it can be criminal and non-criminal. Domestic violence includes physical, sexual, emotional and psychological abuse. It can include a range of controlling behaviours, such as control of finances, isolation from family and friends, continued humiliation, threats against children and also threats of injury or death. At the current time, the NSW Police Force is able to prosecute only under the Crimes Act 1900 in relation to physical assault, stalking and harassment, or under Commonwealth legislation for the use of telecommunications devices to threaten or intimidate. There is no scope to address the coexisting elements of domestic violence and family violence, being the coercive and controlling behaviours of a domestic violent perpetrator.

In 2015 England and Wales were the first nations to outlaw coercive control. Ireland followed suit with similar legislation in May 2018, followed by Scotland. Professor Evan Stark of Rutgers University describes a wide range of controlling behaviours that one person may commit against another person, who is usually a woman and usually a current or former intimate partner. These behaviours collectively strip the other person of their autonomy and their sense of self-worth. The behaviours typically involve some or all of the following: physical violence, intimidation, degradation, isolation and regulation. In most cases, these behaviours have occurred in the context of a relationship that at some point involved actual or threatened physical violence.

While there have been some male victims in these cases, the overwhelming majority are women. In Australia an average of one woman each week is murdered by a current or former partner. From the age of 15 some one in four women have experienced emotional abuse by a current or former partner. Intimate partner violence is a leading contributor to illness, disability and premature death for women aged 18 to 44. Indeed, figures released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show that hospitalisations due to domestic, family and sexual violence are also increasing.

Unfortunately, no electorate in New South Wales is exempt from the horrors of domestic violence, and my own community in the Eastern Suburbs is no exception. Domestic violence liaison officers at both Waverley and Randwick advise me that it is rare to have a shift without at least one presentation or call-out in relation to domestic violence. Indeed, it is often more than one instance. Aside from physical threats, police report psychological components of abuse that coercive control legislation would provide greater scope to address. Recently one domestic violence counselling service in the Eastern Suburbs reported a 110 per cent increase in demand for services.

Clients reported incidents of coercive control including not being permitted access to the phone, threats of harm or threats to have them deported without a spousal visa. According to this particular support service, in current New South Wales legislation most of the behaviour described as coercive control would not constitute an offence unless there was an apprehended violence order already in place. It is often assumed that women and children murdered by the woman's partner or former partner have usually experienced a history of physical violence. However, with the current narrative around domestic violence, in many cases the first incidence of physical violence has actually been the occasion resulting in a woman's death. I commend the motion to the House.