Speaker 1: Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily OS.
Speaker 1: Oh now it makes sense. Just a warning, this podcast
Speaker 1: deals with domestic violence. If you are a loved one
Speaker 1: is struggling, you can call one eight hundred respect on
Speaker 1: one eight hundred seven three seven seven thirty two. Good
Speaker 1: morning and welcome to the Daily ODS. It is Friday,
Speaker 1: the eighth of March.
Speaker 2: I'm Billy, I'm Sam.
Speaker 1: Today it is International Women's Day and we are going
Speaker 1: to be talking about something that disproportionately impacts women, and
Speaker 1: that is coercive control. This week, Queensland became the second
Speaker 1: state in Australia to criminalize coercive control as a standalone offense. Now,
Speaker 1: if you haven't heard of coercive control, it is a
Speaker 1: pattern of controlling and isolating behavior.
Speaker 2: In a relationship.
Speaker 1: It's one of the more invisible types of domestic violence,
Speaker 1: but evidence shows it is extremely harmful and is one
Speaker 1: of the most common forms of how people experience domestic abuse.
Speaker 1: We're going to look at the push to criminalize coerce
Speaker 1: of control around the country in today's deep dive. But
Speaker 1: for Sam, what's making headlines.
Speaker 2: Minister for Women Katie Gallagher has announced Australia's first national
Speaker 2: gender equality strategy called Working for Women. The strategy involves
Speaker 2: a ten year plan which will focus on areas including
Speaker 2: gender based violence, economic equality and health. The strategy's aim
Speaker 2: is to quote shift the attitudes and stereotypes that drive
Speaker 2: gender inequality. The launch comes after the government announced people
Speaker 2: who receive paid parental leave from the government will also
Speaker 2: receive superannuation on top of that payment.
Speaker 1: The son of a former federal defense minister has died
Speaker 1: after an army training accident. Lance Corporal Jacks Fitzgibbon was
Speaker 1: injured during a parachuting incident this week at an army
Speaker 1: base in western Sydney. The Australian Defense Force confirmed yes
Speaker 1: the soldier was the son of formal Labour MP Joel Fitzgibbon,
Speaker 1: who served as a Defense Minister from two thousand and
Speaker 1: seven to two thousand and nine. A statement from the
Speaker 1: Fitzgibbons said, quote Serving in the Special Forces was Jack's
Speaker 1: dream job and we take comfort from the fact he
Speaker 1: died serving his nation. The ADF has launched a formal
Speaker 1: investigation into what happened.
Speaker 2: An URL player for the Sydney Roosters, Spencer Lenu, has
Speaker 2: pleaded guilty to making a racist remark during a game
Speaker 2: in Las Vegas. Over the weekend, Brisbane Broncos player Ezra
Speaker 2: mam alleged Lenu had made a racist comment against him.
Speaker 2: The Sydney Roosters issued a statement apologizing to Ezra, his
Speaker 2: family and the First Nation's community. Lenu said, I am
Speaker 2: sincerely sorry to cause him such distress and I said
Speaker 2: the word, but I didn't mean it in a racist way.
Speaker 1: And today's good news. A gray whale has been spotted
Speaker 1: in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in over
Speaker 1: two centuries. According to the New Englandarium, the whale was
Speaker 1: spotted off the New England coast and was thought to
Speaker 1: be extinct from that area. The whale was seen diving
Speaker 1: and resurfacing multiple times and seemed to be feeding. A
Speaker 1: research technician said quote, we were laughing because of how
Speaker 1: wild and exciting this was to see an animal that
Speaker 1: disappeared from the Atlantic hundreds of years ago.
Speaker 2: Go whales, Go whales. So Billy. Queensland this week became
Speaker 2: the second state in Australia to criminalize coercive control as
Speaker 2: a standalone of fence. New South Wales was the first
Speaker 2: state to do this back in twenty twenty two, and
Speaker 2: you gave us a little bit of an explanation of
Speaker 2: what coercive control is in the intro, but let's have
Speaker 2: more of an in depth discussion about this.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So, coercive control is a form of domestic violence where
Speaker 1: a person denies a victim survivor autonomy and independence over time.
Speaker 1: And it's a whole range of things, And it's important
Speaker 1: to emphasize that it's about a pattern of controlling behavior,
Speaker 1: and it can include a whole range of things like
Speaker 1: isolating your partner from their friends and family, controlling their finances,
Speaker 1: making threats, monitoring them and their behavior, constantly humiliating and
Speaker 1: insulting them. And like I said, it's about a pattern
Speaker 1: of this behavior, So it's not about isolated incidents, but
Speaker 1: how this kind of behavior can really control a partner
Speaker 1: over years.
Speaker 2: Because previously this discussion about domestic violence was really tied
Speaker 2: to physical harm, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. I think ten twenty years ago, the conversation
Speaker 1: about domestic violence was really limited to physical harm. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think of when I was growing up, when there
Speaker 1: were conversations about domestic violence, you instantly would think of
Speaker 1: a person being hit. But what we know now is
Speaker 1: that that is a very limited understanding of how someone
Speaker 1: can experience domestic abuse, and we now know that coercive
Speaker 1: control is one of the most common ways that people
Speaker 1: will experience domestic abuse. Soals view of domestic and family
Speaker 1: violence in Australia found that over eighty percent of men
Speaker 1: who had killed a current or previous female partner had
Speaker 1: exhibited nonviolent behaviors, so things like coercive control against the
Speaker 1: partners that they killed. That's a huge percentage eighty percent.
Speaker 1: And so now in Queensland, if found guilty of this crime,
Speaker 1: there will be a penalty of up to fourteen years imprisonment.
Speaker 2: And why do you think we've had more of these
Speaker 2: conversations about coercive controlled in the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: Well, I think it really entered the mainstream conversation in
Speaker 1: early twenty twenty when Hannah Clark was murdered.
Speaker 3: There's been an outpouring of grief for a mother and
Speaker 3: her three children who were burnt to death in their
Speaker 3: car in Brisbane's East yesterday. There's also anger at the
Speaker 3: man accused of setting them alight.
Speaker 1: I'm sure many people will remember this story. I remember
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty it was kind of the big story
Speaker 1: at the start of twenty twenty apart from COVID, but
Speaker 1: it really dominated the news cycle in Australia. For those
Speaker 1: who need a reminder. In February twenty twenty, Hannah Clark
Speaker 1: and her three children were murdered by their children's father,
Speaker 1: who was Hannah's estranged husband. And there was an inquest
Speaker 1: into what led to Hannah Clark and her children's murder,
Speaker 1: and it found that this man used really controlling behavior
Speaker 1: towards Hannah from early on in their relationship and that
Speaker 1: remained throughout the entirety of their relationship. And it was
Speaker 1: really alarming stuff how this controlling behavior manifested. So the
Speaker 1: inquest found that he was controlling a whole list of
Speaker 1: things that I have here in front of me, and
Speaker 1: I'll list some of them. So it was controlling things
Speaker 1: like what she could wear. For example, it said she
Speaker 1: wasn't allowed to wear shorts or skirts above the knee.
Speaker 1: That was a rule that her husband at the time
Speaker 1: imposed on her. He also controlled what she ate. He
Speaker 1: attempted to isolate Hannah from her family and friends. He
Speaker 1: would hack into Hannah's Instagram account to read her messages
Speaker 1: without her knowing he would read her text messages while
Speaker 1: she was asleep. He also hid recording devices around the
Speaker 1: house and in Hannah's car without her knowing. Hannah also
Speaker 1: actually told friends that she experienced sexual violence at the
Speaker 1: hands of this man in the form of coercive control.
Speaker 1: So she said that she was forced into having sex
Speaker 1: with him every night, and if she did refuse, he
Speaker 1: wouldn't talk to her for days, and he would yell
Speaker 1: at her and threaten her. This list that I have
Speaker 1: in front of me really just goes on and on
Speaker 1: about all of the different ways that he completely controlled
Speaker 1: her and abused her. And so this law is about
Speaker 1: identifying that what he did to her is against the
Speaker 1: law and is a standalone criminal offense. And so after
Speaker 1: the murder of Hannah and her three children, it led
Speaker 1: to Hannah's family starting a campaign to raise awareness firstly
Speaker 1: about what coercive control is and recognizing that it absolutely
Speaker 1: is a form of domestic violence, and also to criminalize it.
Speaker 1: They really led this movement around the country to criminalize
Speaker 1: coerse control, and they started with Queensland because that is
Speaker 1: the state where Hannah and her three children were murdered.
Speaker 1: And it's been a four year process to get to
Speaker 1: this week, but we are finally here where coercive control
Speaker 1: has become a criminal offense in Queensland.
Speaker 2: I'm sure it's a really painful week for Hannah Clark's family.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's taken four years of lobbying to get
Speaker 2: the law to this point. Have we heard from them
Speaker 2: this week?
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So Hannah's parents, Sue and Lloyd Clark, spoke outside of
Speaker 1: Parliament when this law was passed.
Speaker 4: It's now up to the rest of us. Every day
Speaker 4: Queensland is we need to speak out against those signs
Speaker 4: of control when we see them in our mates, in
Speaker 4: our family members, and even in ourselves, and recognized that
Speaker 4: in Queensland this isn't just poor behavior anymore, it's a crime.
Speaker 1: But Sue Clark also said that her work here is
Speaker 1: not done.
Speaker 4: We will continue to speak out until coercive control is
Speaker 4: criminalized throughout Australia.
Speaker 2: I'd love to talk to you about the rest of
Speaker 2: the country and where this law sits in other states
Speaker 2: and territories. But if we just stay on Queensland for
Speaker 2: one more second, was there any opposition to this law
Speaker 2: in the state.
Speaker 1: So the Liberal National Party is the opposition in Queensland
Speaker 1: and they did support this bill, but they had some
Speaker 1: hesitations about how it was done. One thing that they
Speaker 1: raised is about how it is defined. This is a
Speaker 1: new term and it's a new term in law. As
Speaker 1: we said, Queensland is only the second state to do this,
Speaker 1: so it's really hard to define. And like we went
Speaker 1: through with what happened to Hannah, there is a whole
Speaker 1: range of things that this can include, and so it's
Speaker 1: unlike some other crimes where it's not as specific.
Speaker 2: Does that make sense, Yeah, And it's often the case
Speaker 2: that you can be so prescriptive in describing a certain
Speaker 2: set of behavior that it actually can disadvantage future victims
Speaker 2: if that doesn't meet the same criteria.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. But what the opposition here is saying it
Speaker 1: actually needs to be a little bit more specific and
Speaker 1: at the moment, and it's too broad. So this Shadow
Speaker 1: Attorney General Tim Nichols said there was a lack of
Speaker 1: particularization on what constitutes coercive control and he said that
Speaker 1: that needs to be addressed. Another thing that he raised
Speaker 1: concerns about is how this will be rolled out. So
Speaker 1: he said education and training should now be the main
Speaker 1: priorities of both the community and the frontline workers in
Speaker 1: order to effectively roll this out. And he also asked
Speaker 1: for the government to explain how much funding it will
Speaker 1: put behind the necessary training to do this, but from
Speaker 1: what he said, the government hasn't provided that information yet. Also,
Speaker 1: another thing that constantly comes up when we talk about
Speaker 1: coercive control is how these laws will impact First Nations communities.
Speaker 1: So First Nations advocacy groups have repeatedly flagged that coercive
Speaker 1: control laws could actually further disadvantage women in their communities
Speaker 1: because they're worried it could lead to victim survivors being
Speaker 1: misidentified as perpose traders, which they say happens routinely already
Speaker 1: and this could just exacerbate that.
Speaker 2: Really complicated to try and get this right. And I
Speaker 2: guess now as we look to how it could be
Speaker 2: rolled out nationally, how is it looking in the rest
Speaker 2: of Australia.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we mentioned Queensland is the second, New South
Speaker 1: Wales was the first and they did that in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two. But there are conversations about how this could
Speaker 1: be implemented elsewhere. So South Australia has announced it is
Speaker 1: in the early stages of drafting laws to criminalize coercive control,
Speaker 1: and also in Western Australia there's a conversation about if
Speaker 1: this could happen there. A recent review also recommended strengthening
Speaker 1: legislation to target coercive behavior. It's also worth mentioning that
Speaker 1: in Tasmania there are laws criminalizing family violence, which could
Speaker 1: include controlling behavior, but they just haven't specifically outlawed coercive
Speaker 1: control as a standalone offense.
Speaker 2: Okay, And this isn't the only reform in this space
Speaker 2: that's happened in Queensland recently. I saw in our posts
Speaker 2: that you also mentioned stealthing in Queensland.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So stealthing, for those who don't know, is the non
Speaker 1: consensual removal of a condom during sex. And this has
Speaker 1: also become a crime in Queensland this week as part
Speaker 1: of that legislation with coercive control, and it means that
Speaker 1: stealthying will now be recognized as rape in Queensland. And
Speaker 1: this is part of the state moving towards an affirmative
Speaker 1: consent model, which is another term I think we've heard
Speaker 1: a lot more about in recent years, and it's about
Speaker 1: recognizing that each person engaging in a sexual act needs
Speaker 1: to actively seek consent from the other person. Gotcha, And
Speaker 1: so this law in Queensland past this week brings the
Speaker 1: state into line with Tasmania, New South Wales Act and
Speaker 1: Victoria when it comes to stealthing.
Speaker 2: We cover a lot of grounds in that episode that
Speaker 2: can be quite distressing to listen to. And if there's
Speaker 2: anything you want to discuss with a professional, you can
Speaker 2: call one eight hundred respects on one eight hundred seventy
Speaker 2: three seven seven three to two. That's all we've got
Speaker 2: time for on today's episode of The Daily oz. Thank
Speaker 2: you for listening. Please look after yourselves over the weekend,
Speaker 2: be kind to yourself and we'll speak to you again
Speaker 2: on Monday. My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a
Speaker 2: proud Arunda Bungelung Calcoton woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily
Speaker 2: oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands
Speaker 2: of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal
Speaker 2: and Torres Strait Island and nations.
Speaker 3: We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries,
Speaker 3: both past and present.