The Canberra Liberals will introduce legislation to create a standalone criminal offence for coercive control, bringing the ACT in line with other jurisdictions including New South Wales and Queensland.

Leanne Castley, Deputy Leader and Shadow Minister for Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, and Shadow Attorney-General Peter Cain will introduce a private member’s bill in the next session of the Legislative Assembly amid ongoing calls for governments to do more to protect families from domestic violence.

They argue that criminalising coercive control will reform how the legal system handles domestic violence, by moving away from an incident-based approach towards one that prosecutes ongoing abusive behaviours.

“The community is calling for a serious and proactive approach to combatting domestic and family violence, and that is exactly what the Canberra Liberals will do,” Ms Castley said.

“The Government’s own Domestic and Family Violence Risk Assessment and Management Framework from 2022 warned that 99 per cent of intimate partner domestic violence homicides involved coercive control.

“Despite other jurisdictions criminalising it or taking action to criminalise it, the Government has failed to address this scourge of abusive behaviour in our community.

“In 2020, Minister [for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Yvette] Berry said that she was undertaking consultation on the criminalisation of coercive control. Four years later and the Labor-Greens Government is still sitting on its hands, maintaining a ‘watching brief’. This is not good enough, and people are rightfully angry.”

Ms Berry acknowledged the complex issue of coercive control and its impact on domestic and family and sexual violence. She said the government was working with experts to develop collaborative education and support programs to address this issue.

The Canberra Liberals will also introduce an education campaign.

Mr Cain said criminalising abusive behaviour is long overdue.

“This is about sending a message that coercive control is domestic violence. We cannot stop abusive behaviour if we wait for an incident of violence to occur. Coercive control is unacceptable, it ruins lives, and it leads to tragic outcomes.

“This criminal offence will draw a line in the sand. It will also ensure that the ACT’s legislation is consistent with other jurisdictions, particularly NSW with whom we share a border.”

NSW passed a bill to criminalise coercive control in November 2022.

The bill, which the Liberals say is the result of extensive work, is with the Parliamentary Counsel’s Office, and the opposition hopes to have an exposure draft for circulation by next week.

The Canberra Liberals are continuing to explore further initiatives for the prevention of domestic and family violence, they said.

Ms Berry said: “What I’m hearing from the service sector, through experts like the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre, Domestic and Family Violence Services, the Women’s Legal Centre, and my Domestic Violence Prevention Council, is that they want to make sure that there is a very clear understanding of coercive control, not just in a definition on a website, but more broadly across our community, but in particular, through frontline services, like the police, making sure that support services do understand what coercive control means as far as domestic family and sexual violence is concerned.

“The ACT government is not dragging its feet. We’re being very careful and considerate in our approach to making sure that legislation works in the ACT context, and working closely with the sector and those experts to make sure that we get it right…

“The experts have told me that they want to see and develop collaboratively with the government education and support around what is coercive control, and its impacts on domestic and family violence and sexual violence. It is a complex issue, and we want to make sure that we get it right, so that when the legislation is introduced, it doesn’t impact on people negatively. That’s the real fear, and that’s what the service sector is telling me.

“Even as early as this morning, when I was talking to the sector about the bill that’s been introduced by the Canberra Liberals today … what I’m hearing from the sector is the education should come first, a clear understanding within our community and frontline responders, and then following that, understanding the impact of the bill across New South Wales, their own legislation in Queensland, the impact that has on our community, and making sure that it doesn’t have a negative impact. That is the last thing that anybody wants. And that’s why it’s so important to work with those experts in the sector.”