The ACT should not criminalise coercive control until there is greater community understanding and education around the matter, a peak domestic violence support body has said.
Domestic Violence Crisis Service ACT chief executive Sue Webeck said legislative change was not the main priority for the organisation and she was concerned about any proposed changes.
"As an organisation we are deeply concerned about an approach which is running for legislative change before we're even crawling towards cultural change," she said.
"There needs to be infrastructure around training, development and support for police to understand what coercive control is to be able to respond to it.
"Legislative reform is not the aim right now. Community engagement and education is."
The ACT's opposition is planning to introduce a private members' bill into the Legislative Assembly to criminalise coercive control, following the lead of Queensland and NSW.
The territory has been exploring the possibility of criminalising coercive control over recent years.
Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence Yvette Berry said she had been listening carefully to service providers and the government's advisory body on domestic and family violence.
She said they did not want to pursue legislative changes to coercive control until work was undertaken to educate the community and the sector about what coercive control is.
"It's really important that before you introduce legislation that there's a clear understanding by all the frontline responders to coercive control and how that impacts domestic and family violence in our community," Ms Berry said.
Ms Berry said the territory wanted to examine the experience of the NSW laws to ensure it did not have adverse consequences, especially for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and multicultural communities.
Ms Webeck said there was potentially a time in the future where legislative reform should be pursued but cultural change needed to come first.
"We need time to actually work with specialist services to support the implementation of that education and training and understanding how police would account for those reports and how they might investigate those reports," she said.
"Our position has been to call on the territory to move slowly in this direction to watch and learn from other jurisdictions."
Ms Webeck said she had no insight into the development of the Canberra Liberals' bill.
The private members' bill is set to be introduced by deputy opposition leader Leanne Castley. The opposition is proposing to introduce an education campaign alongside the introduction of the bill.
"Minister Berry said that she was monitoring it over the last four years and I just don't think we can monitor any longer," she said.
"Certainly listening to those peak bodies is important ... we need that education piece across the board and I don't think waiting and doing nothing is getting it off the ground."
An exposure draft of the Liberals' bill is expected to be released next week. Ms Castley said the bill did not have a lead time for the legislation coming into effect but this would be established with peak bodies. She said she would consult them about how big an education campaign needed to be.
Ms Berry said the government did not want to give a "knee-jerk" reaction focused solely on the justice system.
"One of the things that often happens with domestic and family violence when it starts impacting our community and people see, as a result of some of the high profile deaths across the country, is that there's this immediate sort of knee-jerk response of wanting to provide a justice response. It's much more complex than that," she said.
"What more do we do to make sure that we change behaviours and attitudes and culture within our community, as well as providing the support and the justice response, they can't be one or the other, we have to do it all together."
The Domestic Violence Crisis Service hosted a candlelight vigil at the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday evening. It was held to mark a national day of remembrance at the beginning of Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
"One death is too many. The countless women in our community who are impacted by violence in their everyday lives is too much for us to accept," Ms Webeck said.
"The children left without a parent, the children impacted by violence in their homes, the children who may never come to the attention of people who may be able to help, it is too much for us to accept."
"The candle vigils are an opportunity for us to come together to reflect, show solidarity and continue our advocacy for better systems and responses to domestic and family violence and the ultimate hope that we may all live a life free from violence."
- Support is available for those who may be distressed. Phone Lifeline 13 11 14; Kids Helpline 1800 551 800; beyondblue 1300 224 636; 1800-RESPECT 1800 737 732; Canberra Rape Crisis Centre 02 6247 2525; Domestic Violence Crisis Service 02 6280 0900
