Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander disadvantage

The Salvation Army provided a submission to the South Australian Governments Criminal Law Consolidation (Coercive Control) Amendment Bill 2023 (the Bill).  

The South Australian Government are working to make coercive control against the law in South Australia. Following consultation and engagement with stakeholders, the Government drafted the Bill which creates a new criminal offence for coercive control, and defines when controlling behaviours will be punishable by the criminal justice system. 

In this submission, we respond to the Bill’s proposed amendments to criminalise coercive control.  Many of our recommendations come down to the need to keep victim-survivors at the centre, and to create a family and domestic violence sector that is well informed, resourced, accessible, and culturally competent. We believe that ultimately, building and strengthening the domestic and family violence service sector, alongside legislative reform, can ensure greater and stronger protections for victim-survivors.  

The Salvation Army has a significant footprint in family and domestic violence service provision across Australia, including in South Australia. Whilst we do not have a view on the criminalisation of coercive control, in our experience we believe it imperative that any introduction of coercive control into legislation should be accompanied by significant systemic reform. This submission provides us with the opportunity to highlight said reforms, and advocate for improved responses to coercive control and non-physical forms of violence. 

This submission covers: 

• The introduction of a definition of coercive control. We discuss the introduction of the concept of “controlling impact” and suggest expanding the meaning of “in a relationship” to include a broad range of relationship types. We also discuss the need for a nationally consistent definition of family and domestic violence which encompasses non-physical forms of violence and coercive control.  

• Considerations on implementation of a criminal offence. We highlight the importance of coinciding education and training, increased sector capacity, consideration of the needs of victim-survivors in rural and remote areas, and collaboration with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and organisations.