Wednesday, 3 December 2025

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (10:12): I lay on the table the statement of compatibility with the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006:

Opening paragraphs

In accordance with section 28 of the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006, (the Charter), I make this Statement of Compatibility with respect to the Crimes Amendment (Coercive Control) Bill 2025 (the Bill).

In my opinion, the Bill, as introduced to the Legislative Council, is compatible with human rights as set out in the Charter. I base my opinion on the reasons outlined in this statement.

Overview

This Bill will amend the Crimes Act to allow authorities to prosecute patterns of manipulative and controlling behaviour as coercive control. This includes physical, emotional, psychological, and financial abuse.

Overview of the Bill

The Bill amends the Crimes Act 1958 to create a new criminal offence of coercive control within intimate partner relationships. The offence applies where a person engages in a course of conduct involving abusive behaviour, with the intention of coercing or controlling an intimate partner. The maximum penalty is 7 years imprisonment.

Abusive behaviour includes violence, threats, intimidation, humiliation, economic abuse, monitoring or tracking, isolation, property damage, harm to animals, deprivation of liberty, or other behaviours causing harm.

The offence applies whether the conduct is carried out directly or indirectly, including via technology or the use of animals, and includes conduct occurring partly outside Victoria provided a sufficient territorial nexus exists.

Human Rights Issues

The Bill engages a number of rights under the Charter, including:

1. Right to recognition and equality before the law (s 8)

2. Right to life (s 9)

3. Protection from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment (s 10)

4. Freedom of movement (s 12)

5. Freedom of expression (s 15)

6. Right to privacy and reputation (s 13)

7. Right to liberty and security of person (s 21)

8. Right to humane treatment when deprived of liberty (s 22)

9. Rights in criminal proceedings (s 25)

10. Protection of families and children (s 17)

A detailed discussion appears below.

1.   Protection of Families and Children (s 17), Right to Life (s 9), and Protection from Cruel or Degrading Treatment (s 10)

The purpose of the Bill is to prevent and penalise coercive and controlling conduct, which is recognised as a serious form of family violence with significant psychological and physical impacts.

By criminalising such conduct, the Bill promotes these rights, offering greater protection to victims – predominantly women – and supporting the safety, wellbeing and dignity of families and children.

2.   Privacy and Reputation (s 13)

The offence may engage the right to privacy by subjecting an individual’s personal, relational, or digital conduct to criminal scrutiny.

However:

• The offence is precisely defined, requiring a course of conduct and intent to coerce or control.

• It is directed at serious harmful behaviours, including monitoring, tracking, intimidation, economic abuse and deprivation of liberty.

• The limitation is reasonable and demonstrably justified under section 7(2) of the Charter, given the nature and gravity of harm the Bill seeks to prevent.

The Bill does not permit arbitrary interference with privacy but rather regulates conduct in a proportionate and targeted manner.

3.   Freedom of Movement (s 12) and Expression (s 15)

While ordinary interpersonal interactions are not affected, some conduct that could be characterised as “expression” or behaviour relating to another person’s movements may fall within the definition of abusive behaviour.

Any such restriction is narrow, targeted and justified:

• The offence requires intent to coerce or control, not merely unpleasant or argumentative behaviour.

• Harms addressed – especially surveillance, deprivation of liberty, and intimidation – are serious and well-established components of family violence.

The Bill therefore imposes no unjustifiable restrictions on these rights.

4.   Liberty (s 21), Humane Treatment (s 22), and Criminal Procedure Rights (s 25)

The Bill creates a new imprisonable offence and therefore engages rights relating to liberty and criminal proceedings.

These impacts are permissible and justified because:

• The offence is clearly defined, including objective and subjective elements (course of conduct, abusive behaviour, intent).

• Standard criminal procedure safeguards apply.

• Maximum penalties are proportionate to the seriousness of the conduct.

The Bill does not modify or displace any existing procedural rights under section 25.

5.   Recognition and Equality Before the Law (s 8)

The offence applies to all persons equally regardless of gender, sexuality or cultural background. It also protects individuals who may be disproportionately at risk of coercive control, thus promoting equality.

Conclusion

In my opinion, the Crimes Amendment (Coercive Control) Bill 2025 is compatible with the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities, as any limitations on rights are reasonable, necessary and proportionate to the Bill’s purpose of preventing serious harm and promoting the safety and dignity of people in intimate partner relationships.

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (10:12): I move:

That the bill be now read a second time.

Ordered, by leave, that second-reading speech be incorporated into Hansard:

In Victoria, family and domestic violence continues to be a critical issue. Despite the Labor Government’s 2015 Royal Commission into Family Violence (and claims its recommendations were fully implemented), family violence rates continue to trend up:

The Crime Statistics Agency’s latest crime data for the year ending June 2025, showed Family Violence Serious Assault incidents increased by 23.35% from June 2024. Breach of a Family Violence Order also increased from June 2024 by 16.68% in June 2025. Victim reports of stalking, harassment and threatening behaviour towards a females increased from 4,878 cases in 2024 to 5,422 cases in 2025.

Last year was the first time that family violence incident call outs to police surpassed 100,000.

The need to do more is ever present. Women of all ages understand the societal problem of domestic violence.

Unfortunately, these statistics do not focus specifically on coercive control. Coercive control is at the heart of much domestic abuse, leaving the person dependent on their abuser, lacking in confidence and isolated from their support network. Victims may suffer for years at the hands of a controlling partner before the pattern of behaviour is identified.

Perpetrators of coercive control use a number of techniques to establish power, including threats, degradation, isolation from family and friends, monitoring/surveillance, gaslighting, enforcing trivial demands & alternating punishment with rewards. Victims can sadly slip into the manipulative worlds created by the abuser of isolation, emotional and psychological violence and financial abuse.

The link between coercive control and female intimate partner homicide is undeniable. Danielle Tyson (2020) cited evidence of coercive control being present in almost all intimate femicide cases in Australia.

Victoria is lagging other states who have moved to criminalise coercive control. Domestic violence is prevalent and growing, yet Labor have failed to take key proactive steps and learnings from other jurisdictions to implement preventative measures and reduce incidents.

Coercive control in other jurisdictions

NSW became the first State/Territory in Australia to criminalise coercive control, when in November 2022, the NSW Parliament passed the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Coercive Control) Act 2022. This comes after the 2020 establishment of the Joint Select Committee on Coercive Control to inquire into and report on coercive control in domestic relationships.

As of 1 July 2024, coercive control is now a criminal offence carrying a maximum of seven years imprisonment. To date they have had 1 prosecution.

In Queensland in March 2021, Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce was established to examine coercive control. The Criminal Law (Coercive Control and Affirmative Consent) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023 was passed by the Queensland Parliament in March 2025.

Since 26 May 2025, Coercive control is now a criminal offence allowing authorities to prosecute patterns of manipulative and controlling behaviour.

Former UK Prime Minister Teresa May established coercive and controlling behaviour as a criminal offence in the Serious Crime Act 2015 which saw England and Wales became the first nations to do so. Until then domestic laws mainly addressed physical violence. Emotional, and economic abuse – where victims were controlled without physical harm – were not adequately covered. The Prime Minister on hearing too many stories of coercive control acted. There have been many prosecutions in the UK since that time.

UK Family Violence organisations and the Metropolitan Police acknowledge the role of their legislation in a societal shift in understanding coercive control. As a result, this legislation has an important preventative role, working hand in hand with the criminal offence which have seen Women’s Aid UK reported there were 43,774 offences of coercive control recorded by the police in England and Wales (excluding Devon and Cornwall) in the year ending March 2023.

Victoria’s scheme

This bill, Crimes Amendment (Coercive Control) Bill 2025 is being introduced in order to protect victims of coercive control and criminalise coercive control behaviour.

Our scheme will be modelled primarily on NSW legislation which carries a maximum of 7 years imprisonment.

For the purpose of the bill, intimate partner means another person who

• is or has been the person’s spouse or domestic partner, whether or not the other person lives or has lived with the person or

• has had, an intimate personal relationship with the person, whether or not the intimate personal relationship is or was sexual

The abuser must engage in a ‘course of conduct’ of behaviour that includes but is not limited to violence or threats of violence, intimidation or humiliation, coercion or control, economic abuse, emotional or psychological abuse or monitoring or tracking a person’s activities.

Evidence can include phone records, text messages, photographs of injury, diary entries of events, bank records & witnesses.

A broader education package will form part of the implementation. We will introduce education and training for authorities and the broader public about coercive control, and managing the perpetrator, and how to protect the victim.

The Liberals and Nationals are committed to real action that prioritises prevention and safety, particularly for those suffering family and domestic violence. We will make coercive control a crime as well as introduce a preventative Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (Right to Ask, Right to Know – Clare’s Law), which was voted down by the government twelve months ago.

 Lee TARLAMIS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:12): I move:

That debate be adjourned for two weeks.

Motion agreed to and debate adjourned for two weeks.