Category: Our Community Partners

Family violence tech stalkers are about to be caught out

Use of stalkerware, GPS tracking and other technologies to commit family violence abuse has increased sharply in the past five years but a new tool to detect covert apps on victims’ phones is about to be rolled out. Research with frontline family violence workers by peak domestic violence network Wesnet found tracking and monitoring of women… Read more »

Murdered mum Hannah Clarke’s parents push for new laws to criminalise ‘coercive control’ in Australia to protect others

In February last year, Hannah Clarke’s estranged husband Rowan Baxter doused her car in petrol and set it alight killing her and their three children – Aaliyah, Laianah and Trey. He then took his own life. The brutal murder stunned the nation and thrust Australia’s domestic violence problem into the global spotlight. Now Hannah’s grieving parents… Read more »

Fight to criminalise coercive control ramps up

“It sends a very clear message to everyone in the community that coercive controlling behaviour is dangerous and intolerable,” an anti-domestic violence advocate says. Despite coercive control being the most common risk factor present in the lead up to an intimate partner homicide, it’s not yet illegal across most of Australia. Now, a group of… Read more »

Experts from Scotland who led push to criminalise coercive control give evidence to Australian committee

Scotland has laws that are considered the “gold standard” for protecting women and children from coercive control and they have caught the eye of Australian politicians. Coercive control is when patterns of abusive behaviours are used by one person to dominate and control another in a relationship. It usually happens gradually and can involve things… Read more »

Coercive control is a new term for an old problem. Should it be illegal?

There are no bruises or broken bones that show they’re being assaulted, or that their lives are at risk. Instead, its victims are subjected to controlling behaviour from their partner, restricting access to money, where they go and who they meet, even telling them what to wear. Its survivors often fear this type of partner… Read more »

Alleged Alice Springs murder victim identified as leading anti-domestic violence campaigner

A 46-year-old woman allegedly murdered in an alleged domestic violence incident in Alice Springs last week has been identified as an anti-domestic violence campaigner. WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains an image of a person who has died. In a statement, the Tangentyere Women’s Family Safety Group confirmed… Read more »