The State Government has introduced legislation to State Parliament to criminalise coercive control.
What is coercive control?
Coercive control is an under-reported type of domestic violence where an abuser seeks to control a victim's behaviour.
It can include:
- attempting to isolate someone from their friends and family
- controlling their finances
- monitoring what they say, what they wear and even what they eat or when they sleep.
Criminalising coercive control
Coercive control is not currently a standalone offence in South Australia.
The proposed reforms would criminalise controlling behaviours within both current and former intimate partner relationships that restrict one or more of the following aspects of the victim's life:
- freedom of movement
- freedom of action
- ability to engage in social, political, religious, cultural, educational or economic activities
- ability to make decisions with respect to their body
- ability to access the justice system, basic necessities, support services or property they own.
The Criminal Law Consolidation (Coercive Control) Amendment Bill 2024 would require the prosecution to prove the behaviour had a controlling impact likely to cause physical or psychological harm, to ensure the laws capture only genuine instances of coercive control.
The introduction of the Bill follows extensive consultation with the legal profession, peak domestic violence prevention advocacy groups, victim-survivors and the broader community.
Read the media release.
Previous consultation
After in depth engagement with stakeholders, the Government drafted the Criminal Law (Coercive Control) Amendment Bill 2023.
From 29 August to 10 October, the draft legislation was available for public consultation. Information sessions were held to provide more detail about the new laws and answer questions. Feedback informed the final version of the Bill introduced to Parliament on 29 August 2024. Visit yourSAy for more.
In late 2022 and early 2023 the Office for Women convened stakeholder roundtables to seek community input ahead of preparing the Bill.
The following roundtables were held:
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and communities
- Culturally and Linguistically Diverse community leaders
- Embolden Voices for Change Lived Experience Group
- Young people and organisations that work with young people
- LGBTIQA+ community members and organisations
- Disability sector community members and organisations.
Roundtable participants provided comments on what the offence should look like once drafted, as well as initiatives to implement the legislation, such as community education and training for justice system authorities.
The Discussion paper - Implementation considerations should coercive control be introduced in South Australia (PDF, 1.1 MB) was released for public consultation on 2 February 2022 to obtain feedback on the themes of awareness raising, education and training, services for victim-survivors and responses to perpetrators.
The consultation period closed 1 April 2022.
The Attorney-General's Department received 22 submissions from a broad range of agencies and organisations, including:
- general support services for victim-survivors and perpetrators
- legal assistance services
- advocacy groups
- an academic
- interested individuals.
Find out more:
During September and October 2021, consultation on a proposed South Australian offence of coercive control was conducted.
There were 173 respondents to a public survey and more detailed submissions received from 31 individuals and organisations.
The feedback noted the importance of the implementation process with suggestions including:
- training for enforcement agencies to identify, charge and prosecute coercive control
- a public awareness campaign
- wrap-around support services for victims
- a focus on regional and remote victims, Aboriginal communities and migrant communities.
Additional background information about the 2021 community consultation can be found on yourSAy.