Coercive control will become a criminal offence and removing a condom without consent will be considered rape under historic laws passed by Queensland parliament.
Under sweeping reform passed in an omnibus bill on Wednesday, coercive control will become a criminal offence in 2025 and attract a maximum penalty of 14 years.
Queensland is the second jurisdiction to move towards criminalising coercive control – a pattern of behaviours that is highly correlated with the risk of domestic harm and homicide.
The behaviours can include emotional, psychological and economic abuse, isolation, intimidation, sexual coercion and cyberstalking.
The state parliament has also passed affirmative consent laws. The legislation requires free and voluntary agreement to participate in a sexual activity.
This means a person must say or do something to ascertain consent, which can include a non-verbal cue.
The act of stealthing – removing or tampering with a condom during sex without consent – will be criminalised and carry a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Stealthing is illegal in Tasmania, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory.
Sue and Lloyd Clarke have championed the criminalisation of coercive control since losing their daughter, Hannah, and three grandchildren, Aaliyah, 6; Laianah, 4; and Trey, 3, to a domestic violence murder.
A teary Sue Clarke told reporters on Wednesday she was thrilled the legislation had passed.
“We need to speak out against those signs of control when we see them in our mates, in our family members, and even in ourselves and recognise … this isn’t just poor behaviour, it’s a problem,” she said.
“We’re hoping this important step will inspire other states to empower and protect women and children in their communities.”
The chief executive of Women’s Legal Service Queensland, Nadia Bromley, said the legislation was a “significant milestone”.
“The introduction of affirmative consent reflects the fundamental human right of bodily integrity – and the obligation we all have to respect it,” she said.
“There is much work left to do … but today was a big step towards a better future.”
In parliament on Wednesday, the minister for women, Shannon Fentiman, recognised the many survivors who had contributed to the bill.
“For too long victims have been let down by a system that does not understand or acknowledge the pain inflicted upon them by perpetrators,” Fentiman said.
“This bill is about recentring victim voices.”
The premier, Steven Miles, said coercive control was an “insidious” form of “abuse” and the laws would “save lives” and make women in Queensland safer.
The Liberal National party supported the bill but moved amendments to remove a provision of the bill which require a court to consider cultural considerations such as intergenerational trauma when sentencing an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person.
The amendments failed, as did amendments tabled by the Greens, which requested coercive control laws to be reviewed in three years to monitor the impacts of policing, particularly on First Nations and multicultural communities.
The Greens MP Michael Berkman said the party supported the bill but felt “putting sole responsibility for responding to domestic violence on to the police does not work”.
“The recent inquiry into police responses to domestic and family violence highlighted how ill-equipped the police are to respond to domestic violence, citing instances of acute misconduct as well as systemic and cultural failures,” he said.
Fentiman said the state’s police force would roll out compulsory face-to-face domestic and family violence coercive control training from 1 July.
Several members of parliament shared their own experiences of domestic violence and how it impacted their loved ones.
The LNP MP Ros Bates said when she was a child she witnessed her mother as a victim of coercive control.
“Watching my mum have to lie, hide things and try to work her way around my father to have some sort of a life was sad,” she told parliament.
“The LNP wants justice for sexual assault victims, and we must ensure the law strengthens the chance of prosecution and leaves no room for error.”
The Labor MP Jonty Bush spoke about her sister, Jacinta, who was murdered when she was 19 years old.
“After Jacinta died, a common reaction I received from friends, colleagues and random people in the street was, of course, ‘Didn’t you see anything?’” Bush said.
“The question is not, ‘Didn’t you see anything?’; it should be, ‘What could you have done with the stuff that you saw?’ and the answer at that time was, ‘Nothing.’
“This bill … will capture that pattern of behaviour that is, by definition, coercive control and it will recognise that as a crime in and of itself.”
• In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org
With additional reporting by Andrew Messenger
