❓ The Minister outlines ongoing initiatives by the Cook Labor government to raise awareness and prevent family and domestic violence, including coercive control education campaigns and partnerships with sporting organisations. The Minister also criticises the opposition's handling of a recent double homicide.
AnsweredQoN 579Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
Family and domestic violence—Coercive control
579. Ms Colleen Egan to
the Minister for Prevention of Family and
Domestic Violence:
I refer to the Cook
Labor government's commitment to tackling family and domestic violence in Western
Australia. Can the minister advise the house of ongoing initiatives that
support the awareness and prevention of family and domestic violence?
579. Ms Colleen Egan to
the Minister for Prevention of Family and
Domestic Violence:
I refer to the Cook
Labor government's commitment to tackling family and domestic violence in Western
Australia. Can the minister advise the house of ongoing initiatives that
support the awareness and prevention of family and domestic violence?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for
the question. I know that she is a passionate advocate for the prevention of
family and domestic violence. I am pleased to inform the house that the Cook
Labor government has started on its third phase of the coercive control
education campaign. This is now in its second year, and we have two campaigns: "Coercion
Hurts" and "Coercive Control—A Story That's Not Ours". As
I said, this year marks the second year of these campaigns, and we are starting
to see an increase in awareness of coercive control in our community. This is
family and domestic violence, and the first thing the community needed to
understand was that it does not need to be physical. As I have spoken about
previously, coercive control is an insidious form of family and domestic
violence. It involves patterns of controlling behaviours that erode a person's
freedom, agency and independence. It often is very subtle and happens over time.
The message that it does not have to be physical has been seen 27 million times
across multiple media channels throughout the campaign. Alongside this is the A
Story That's Not Ours campaign, which was specifically developed with
Aboriginal audiences in mind to deliver a key message that coercive control is family and domestic violence. It has been delivered
more than eight million times. In phase 3, the new elements focus on
increasing access to information for Aboriginal people and people from culturally
and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Coercive
Control: A Story That's Not Ours will be screened in the waiting rooms of
Aboriginal health clinics across the state. A suite of animated videos has also
been developed in 10 languages, building on the campaign materials already
available in 32 languages. As Minister for Prevention of Family and Domestic
Violence, I can assure Western Australians that we on this side of the house
are committed to legislating coercive control in this term of government. This
is to protect women and children, to stop violence before it starts and,
importantly, to hold perpetrators to account.
I am also pleased
that I was joined this morning by the Deputy Premier and a number of WA
sporting organisations and athletes, who have pledged to play their part in driving
cultural change in their sporting organisations at both elite and grassroots
levels by challenging the behaviours and attitudes that lead to family and
domestic violence. As I said this morning, a lack of respect, or disrespect,
does not always lead to violence, but violence always starts with disrespect. I
thank those peak bodies and athletes for coming along and signing the pledge to
play their part to stop violence against women in Western Australia. As we
know, sport has the power to bring people together. People in our communities
feel most connected to their sporting organisations, so having these sporting
organisations as the vehicle for this message is a great boon for this campaign.
We also want to meet men and boys where they are in the wider WA community, and
a lot of the time where they are is in these sporting organisations.
As members can see,
we are committed to seriously addressing FDV in our community, which is in
stark contrast to those opposite. I highlight that, this morning, Hon Phil
Twiss dismissed the double homicide that occurred in Floreat as "an issue".
I challenge the member for Churchlands, who represents the electorate in which these
murders occurred, on whether his community would be happy with his member, a
person whom he is supposed to lead, referring to the double homicide as just an
issue. That was disrespectful. That characterisation was appalling. The Leader
of the Opposition should show some backbone and leadership and reprimand his
member in the other house.
The Speaker: The Leader of the Opposition with the
final question.
the question. I know that she is a passionate advocate for the prevention of
family and domestic violence. I am pleased to inform the house that the Cook
Labor government has started on its third phase of the coercive control
education campaign. This is now in its second year, and we have two campaigns: "Coercion
Hurts" and "Coercive Control—A Story That's Not Ours". As
I said, this year marks the second year of these campaigns, and we are starting
to see an increase in awareness of coercive control in our community. This is
family and domestic violence, and the first thing the community needed to
understand was that it does not need to be physical. As I have spoken about
previously, coercive control is an insidious form of family and domestic
violence. It involves patterns of controlling behaviours that erode a person's
freedom, agency and independence. It often is very subtle and happens over time.
The message that it does not have to be physical has been seen 27 million times
across multiple media channels throughout the campaign. Alongside this is the A
Story That's Not Ours campaign, which was specifically developed with
Aboriginal audiences in mind to deliver a key message that coercive control is family and domestic violence. It has been delivered
more than eight million times. In phase 3, the new elements focus on
increasing access to information for Aboriginal people and people from culturally
and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Coercive
Control: A Story That's Not Ours will be screened in the waiting rooms of
Aboriginal health clinics across the state. A suite of animated videos has also
been developed in 10 languages, building on the campaign materials already
available in 32 languages. As Minister for Prevention of Family and Domestic
Violence, I can assure Western Australians that we on this side of the house
are committed to legislating coercive control in this term of government. This
is to protect women and children, to stop violence before it starts and,
importantly, to hold perpetrators to account.
I am also pleased
that I was joined this morning by the Deputy Premier and a number of WA
sporting organisations and athletes, who have pledged to play their part in driving
cultural change in their sporting organisations at both elite and grassroots
levels by challenging the behaviours and attitudes that lead to family and
domestic violence. As I said this morning, a lack of respect, or disrespect,
does not always lead to violence, but violence always starts with disrespect. I
thank those peak bodies and athletes for coming along and signing the pledge to
play their part to stop violence against women in Western Australia. As we
know, sport has the power to bring people together. People in our communities
feel most connected to their sporting organisations, so having these sporting
organisations as the vehicle for this message is a great boon for this campaign.
We also want to meet men and boys where they are in the wider WA community, and
a lot of the time where they are is in these sporting organisations.
As members can see,
we are committed to seriously addressing FDV in our community, which is in
stark contrast to those opposite. I highlight that, this morning, Hon Phil
Twiss dismissed the double homicide that occurred in Floreat as "an issue".
I challenge the member for Churchlands, who represents the electorate in which these
murders occurred, on whether his community would be happy with his member, a
person whom he is supposed to lead, referring to the double homicide as just an
issue. That was disrespectful. That characterisation was appalling. The Leader
of the Opposition should show some backbone and leadership and reprimand his
member in the other house.
The Speaker: The Leader of the Opposition with the
final question.
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