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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-03-22 Daily Xml
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Domestic and Family Violence

Mrs PEARCE (King) (14:57): My question is to the Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence. How is the government increasing community awareness and action ahead of the introduction of legislation to criminalise coercive and controlling behaviours as a form of domestic violence?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD (Reynell—Minister for Child Protection, Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:57): I thank the member for her question and her passion to address insidious forms of violence that our community confronts.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Unley and the member for Florey and the Premier will cease their exchange.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has the call.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Unley is warned. The Premier is warned. The minister has the call.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has the call.

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: Prior to the election, our government made a commitment to help prevent and end domestic violence, and to do that through working alongside brave victim survivors, service providers, women's organisations and our whole community. We want to bring to life that oft-repeated mantra that preventing domestic violence is everybody's responsibility. We are delivering on our commitments to introduce a range of legislative measures to support those experiencing violence and to deal with perpetrators—a commitment I am proud we are progressing.

An important part of our commitment is ensuring that community members can see the signs of all forms of domestic violence. Last week, I was deeply honoured to host the remarkably courageous Sue and Lloyd Clarke in Adelaide to assist in strengthening that broader public discourse and awareness about coercive control, an insidious form of domestic violence that is shockingly present in 99 per cent of domestic violence-related homicides. Hannah Clarke and her three children—Sue and Lloyd's daughter and grandchildren—were killed by her former partner in a horrifying attack in 2020, following a relationship in which she was a victim of this form of domestic violence.

I am so incredibly grateful to Sue and Lloyd Clarke, who, having experienced this most tragic of losses, so generously and with such strength continue to use their voices and their story to encourage communities across the country to understand and prevent disrespect and violence towards women. Their openness and empowerment of other organisations and people to make change is an extraordinary gift.

All who were present at last week's forum can attest to their strength, power and kindness. Criminalising coercive controlling patterns of behaviour is the right thing to do, and engaging in community awareness raising around it could save lives. Current legislative measures generally deal with incidents of domestic violence. Criminalising coercive control will ensure we deal with patterns of controlling coercive behaviours. It represents an enormous step forward in the legislative frameworks that deal with perpetrators and in improving community understanding of all that constitutes domestic violence.

Community awareness grew from last week's forum and will continue to grow as we work to shift understanding in the lead-up to and beyond the introduction of the bill. For new legislation to be effective, and for us to robustly tackle this horrific behaviour, more people need to understand what coercive control is. That is why our government has spent time consulting with particular groups of people to seek their views in the lead-up to introducing legislation, and this is why we previewed at the forum an important campaign to help victims, survivors, their friends, families and the broader South Australian community to see the signs of coercive control.

Targeted at young people, to encourage them to see the red flags of coercive control, the first round of the campaign will include outdoor advertising and videos across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat. The campaign sits alongside a suite of initiatives aimed at addressing domestic violence. I thank again Sue and Lloyd Clarke for so powerfully starting our South Australian community conversation and for generously sharing their wisdom. I feel blessed to know them and will honour them and their precious daughter and grandchildren as we set our course to make change.

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