Police and courts will receive training on identifying and responding to coercive control with the ACT government providing funding in the upcoming budget.
The $375,000 package will also include funding for a public awareness campaign.
It is unclear exactly what form the training will be and what the campaign would entail with ACT Minister for the Prevention of Domestic Violence Yvette Berry saying these details were still being worked through.
"We'll be working through that with the sector to make sure that we provide the best possible training. We haven't agreed on what that's going to look like yet," Ms Berry said.
The government has faced pressure from the opposition to criminalise coercive control but the government is holding off on legislative change at this stage.
Instead, the government has said it wants to focus on community education and training. The budget investment will mark the first significant targeted investment in this space.
The Canberra Liberals have released an exposure draft of proposed legislation to criminalise coercive control. Under the legislation a person could face up to seven years in jail.
Coercive control has already been criminalised in NSW and Queensland.
The Domestic Violence Crisis Service ACT has said the territory should not criminalise coercive control until there was greater understanding and education around the matter.
Domestic Violence Crisis Service ACT chief executive Sue Webeck welcomed the funding for training around coercive control. She said the crucial part was training frontline services, such as police, about how to respond and ensuring they had the resources to do so.
She said community education around coercive control wouldn't take long but the crucial part was for frontline services.
"It is a welcome announcement to see that money entering into the space of coercive control to ensure we are responding and engaging with that conversation," Ms Webeck said.
"Learning off our interstate colleagues but also listening to the voices of victim-survivors and those who will be on the frontline of responding to coercive control, regardless of whether there is legislation that criminalises that.
"We have people responding to it now and we need to make sure that's happening in a way that at the point criminalisation is discussed and legislated that actually people are prepared to respond to that."
Altogether, the budget will provide more than $12 million to address domestic and family violence.
This will include a funding boost to support and frontline agencies including the Domestic Violence Crisis Service, Canberra Rape Crisis Centre, YWCA, Beryl Women Inc and Women's Health Matters.
There will also be $1.6 million given to EveryMan, which is an organisation that provides violence prevention programs to men.
Ms Berry said addressing placed family and domestic violence at the forefront of the government's agenda.
"Across Australia, domestic and family violence is a crisis that requires urgent and ongoing attention," she said.
"Governments at all levels need to be doing everything they can to bring an end to this epidemic."
Opposition domestic violence prevention spokeswoman Leanne Castley said while funding was welcomed the government's funding was a "token effort". She urged the government to support the Liberals' bill.
"The Canberra Liberals are committed to addressing the serious issue of coercive control and that is why we have released an exposure draft of a bill to criminalise the behaviour," she said.
"If the Labor-Greens government are at all serious about addressing coercive control they will support the Canberra Liberals bill and stop sitting on their hands pretending to do something."
Ms Berry did not say whether the government would commit to criminalising coercive control following the various training and education campaigns.
She said there were concerns about how criminalising coercive could affect Indigenous people and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
"It's not something that you could do in a day, it's a culture shift and a culture change for all of us to understanding that controlling behaviour is not OK," Ms Berry said.
"That is one part of the issue that we're trying to overcome. Understanding coercive control is a complex issue. The other part is understanding what the impact of criminalising coercive control could have on minority groups within our community like Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and people from multicultural backgrounds."
- 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
