Watts McCray Lawyers’ Post

Transcript

Changes to coercive control laws in NSW were brought in at the start of the month after some horrific domestic violence murders where women were killed by their current or former partner. What's the situation here though? We've got some great support networks for victim survivors, but those networks themselves often struggle to get funding. Jesco is the local family lawyer and I'm interested today to learn about the situation here in the Illawarra. So Jesus, come in. To have a bit of a chat and to educate us all. Good morning, Jess. Good morning. Thanks for having me Amy. It's great to have you in here having a face to face conversation as well as with our listeners. And of course they can text in or call in at anytime. The number is 1300 nine, 73300 or 0467922684. Some of what we're talking about today is a is a little bit, it's not always nice, is it? No, it's can be tricky conversation, but it's an important conversation to have. It absolutely is. And what are you making of the coercive control laws becoming a standalone offence? Yeah. Look, advocates in this space are very happy about that happening. We've been pushing it for a long time, particularly from the Illawarra with the assistance of Anna Watson, one of our local members. Or a little bit disappointed in some of the watering down, however, of the bill. So on the 1st of July, the Crimes Act was amended to create a new offence relating to abusive. Abusive behaviour towards current or former intimate partners. Coercive control is a form of domestic, family and sexual violence that involves a pattern of abuse used to control and dominate another person. So that includes a whole heap of behaviours. And it's really important that it's recognised now because often what we were seeing with clients was there was this pattern of abusive behaviour but where there isn't a big explosive eruption of violence or something big for the police to to latch on to as far as making. Charges we weren't seeing charges being laid, so it was taking, you know, a true beating with blood and bruises to actually get some action or what does this mean now what it means now is that the police are able to lay the charges. However, there are some hurdles in place so one of the. What we see as being a watering down of the bill is the fact that it only relates to intimate partners or previous intimate partners. So we're we're in other types of relationships, particularly for Aboriginal and coal peoples, where there are other relationships in Moab and other family relationships and dynamics, it's not covered. The other concern that we have about the watering down is really the need for the element of intention. So the police will need to prove when the police, prosecutors in the local courts and district courts are going to have to prove. That there was an intention to coerce and control. We would prefer that it was recklessness because we know that when coercive and controlling behaviours happen, there's not always an intention necessarily to be emotional, coercive and controlling. So we'd like to see that tightened up a lot further. But it it is very positive to have it brought in. We're not sure what the numbers are that are coming out yet. As far as charges are concerned, it can only relate well. The charges can only be for offences from the 1st of. Rely on words so we. It's yet to be seen. We need to wait and see what happens within a couple of weeks since they've come in. So they're probably not available. But and the information, this is so important. We need to let victims, survivors know that there is a charge now and they should be talking to the police about this as an option. So sometimes getting out of the house to have that conversation or making that call is is a dangerous situation though, Jess, it is, it is, it's most definitely a dangerous situation and particularly his family lawyers where we are speaking to clients. Before they've made their decision to separate on a lot of occasions, we need to be very careful to make sure that the victim survivor is safe. And that's another concern with the legislation as well. It involves the victim survivor collating the evidence, the evidence that there is a pattern of coercive controlling behaviours. Now how do you do that? Well, when you've got a a perpetrator who's looking through your phone every day, it's very difficult to collate that ever take pictures or write it down or like in your phone with somebody if he finds it. That could have that and I say hey, because a lot of the time the perpetrators are male, but sometimes it is a female perpetrator. If it's found, then it's there's usually an escalation as well to triggering event in itself. Yes. So what are women doing? I think they're doing their best. I speak to a lot of victim survivors. I actually also chair the Illawarra Women's Health Centre and Women's Trauma Recovery Centre locally. So we're seeing that victim survivors are doing their best to collate. Evidence, sometimes it means sending it to an external e-mail, having a family member helped to collate evidence. But it's definitely a big challenge because we need to prove a pattern of behaviour for this charge. In your experience, and you've just mentioned the two roles that you hold, are you seeing a rise in DV cases in the Illawarra? Definitely, definitely. It's really sad, particularly after COVID, we've seen a significant rise. There's so many pressures on families, financial pressures. We are seeing a rise in addiction issues. We are seeing a rise in domestic, family and sexual violence. It's good that we're having more, much more conversations about it now. It's not as taboo a subject, but you would be very surprised what's going on in people's homes until people start to open up to you about the situation that they're in. Can you perhaps share what kind of cases we're seeing locally? Of course, I wouldn't want you to share names or anything like that, but just so our listeners understand and I understand and we understand. Exactly what we're talking about here yeah definitely so financial controls are big one with we see a lot of financial control unfortunately into factor relationships and marriages can can be combined with cultural issues historical cultural issues and and historical norms but we're seeing a lot of financial control we also see that emotional abuse and coercive controlling behaviours through that threats to manipulate through the kids if you leave me I'll tell the court that you're. Crazy that you can't look after the children that you have mental health issues. We're also seeing a big escalation when it comes to alcoholism. The issue of not having proper medical supports in place and people can't always afford to pay. The gaps. People are waiting months upon months just to see a psychologist. People are starting, well not starting. It's been a long term problem but we're seeing more of people self medicating alcohol, drug addiction. And it's definitely not something that's just impacting low socioeconomic people are cocaine. I'm seeing a lot more cocaine as an issue and and you have to have money to purchase that type of drug and alcoholism, functioning Alcoholics who can go to work and function during the day and just coming, coming back home and and unfortunately self medicating. And we see it on both sides for people dealing with trauma as well, which is why services like the Illawarra. Women's Health Center, the Women's Trauma Recovery Centre are so important to provide supports to victim survivors so that they are able to heal and recover from what they've been through. So it's such a crazy cycle and I can only imagine at the moment with the housing crisis then coupled with, you know, DV events. Is that leaving women, especially those with children, stranded? Do we, Do we have enough services, Enough help? Ohh, there's nowhere near enough help. I know that when we look at the board reports that we receive through the two centres that I'm on the board for, we are constantly seeing huge waiting lists. Our staff are doing the absolute best that they can to provide services to women. As far as housing is concerned. We're often meeting with clients who are separated and having to live separated under the same roof. That's not. A deal, particularly where tensions are high. We've got children being exposed to all sorts of family violence, whether or not that's verbal emotional abuse, the children are being exposed to that under the same roof. We know for victim survivors of domestic violence that separation is the most dangerous time. So getting a woman out of the house when she's decided to separate is really important because the home can be a very dangerous place for a woman. So we know that these services are needed. We have some amazing services doing some brilliant work, but it's not enough and we are constantly having to continue to fight for funding. And, and it all needs to be properly funded as far as the housing crisis is concerned. We just don't have enough accommodation here. We definitely don't have enough affordable housing that into consideration. Where are we going to live? How is this going to work? And sometimes sadly, people stay in very unhappy, unhealthy relationships and marriages because they just can't see a way out, particularly for mums if they're not working full time or a working. Staying at home with the children, money is an issue. Yeah. Let. Let's hope these changes really do make a difference. And as you said, it's about educating the the people out there who are being affected by this type of behaviour to understand that this is now a mechanism that they can use. Jess. Yeah, definitely. We need to we need to be letting people know, share information, talk to your friends and family, check in on people because you don't know what's happening in their homes. Be kind to others and be compassionate and understanding because. People can be going through all types of things. It just family lawyer here in the Illawarra filling us in on what we're seeing across the Illawarra when it comes to domestic violence cases and these new coercive control laws. Thank you so much for taking the time to come into the studio and and educate us and our listeners. Thanks Saying this today. Appreciate. Great to have you here. Not not a great topic, of course, sad and harrowing stories, but hopefully the shout out will help somebody out there.