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Qld’s fight against DV must do more, says family lawyer
A new campaign to curb domestic violence in the Sunshine State needs to remember that such violence does not only involve fists, according to a prominent family lawyer.
Jerome Doraisamy
Queensland has recently launched its #dosomething campaign, which encourages friends, family and neighbours to stop turning a blind eye to domestic violence, in light of a record 32,346 DV protection orders issued across the state in 2016-17, representing a 38 per cent increase in just four years.
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Premier Annastasia Palaszczuk has pumped $312 million over six years into DV prevention and assistance as part of the campaign, which will cover tougher laws, refuges for victims and their children, specialised courts and a duty-lawyer service.
Hetherington Family Law accredited specialist Jennifer Hetherington applauded these new initiatives but said it’s too easy for the government to simply label DV as physical assaults while ignoring coercive controlling abuse which, she said, can span many years and be just as devastating.
The campaign, she argued, needs to go further.
“One of the big issues with domestic violence is that people often don’t recognise that what they are experiencing, be it controlling behaviour or a partner snooping on your phone calls, is actually also a form of domestic violence,” she explained.
There must be a greater focus on what coercive control looks like, she said, and not just a focus on physical violence.
“Many people don’t realise what they are experiencing is abuse and are isolated from family and friends. It’s not just about asking your neighbor who you think may be a victim of physical violence,” she said.
“It’s about the colleague who always has to ask permission from her husband to do anything, or never goes out or never seems to have any money because her partner controls the finances.”
“It’s about society realising that a violent relationship doesn’t necessarily start with physical violence – it can build up to that and a victim can be left feeling powerless and unable to leave when it becomes physically violent because of years of emotional and financial abuse,” she argued.
Family lawyers often encounter such examples of abuse in the court of their work, she noted, with emotional abuse including criticism of one’s looks or parenting skills, verbal abuse, stalking and cyberstalking, damaging property to intimidate, and tracking someone’s phone or social media use.
“The Queensland government defines domestic violence as happening ‘when one person in a relationship uses violence or abuse to control the other person’,” she said.
“[But] domestic and family violence is usually an ongoing pattern of behaviour aimed at controlling a partner through fear.”
