A key precursor to intimate partner homicide will be highlighted in new ads warning that controlling behaviour is not an expression of love.
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The campaign will run the tagline "it's not love, it's coercive control. Know the signs of abuse" across various platforms in NSW with examples of what controlling behaviour looks like.
NSW in July will become the first Australian jurisdiction where coercive control is outlawed with a standalone dedicated offence.
Some 97 per cent of intimate partner domestic violence homicides in NSW between 2000 and 2018 were preceded by the perpetrator using emotional and psychological abuse as a form of coercive control towards the victim, according to data.
The launch in Sydney on Wednesday comes as a critical juncture in domestic violence prevention, as violent deaths and chronic underfunding of services pressure governments to do more.
Deputy Premier Prue Car says the education campaign is vital to ensure people know what coercive control looks like and perpetrators know what they are doing is wrong.
"The past few weeks have brought into sharp focus the need for urgent action on women's safety," she said.
Among those helping launch the campaign is a minor party MP who has been a victim of domestic violence.
"It is hard to explain the experience of coercive control, but someone having to know where you are at all times, and being continuously verbally abusive, has the ability to destroy someone's life in so many ways," Animal Justice MP Emma Hurst said.
But Greens MP Abigail Boyd baulked at standing beside the government at the launch, saying the campaign was "entirely insufficient".
"Compare this so-called education campaign to what was done in Scotland and the UK, and the scale of ambition is just worlds apart," she said.
"With the persistent failure to properly resource real solutions, I cannot endorse the government's approach."
The campaign was developed with more than 70 stakeholders from a coercive control task force and 10 associated reference groups, including victim-survivors.
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Australian Associated Press
