Alina Thomas

Engender Equality, a dedicated family violence service committed to fostering safe and supportive environments, seeks to express concern regarding the proposed Miscellaneous (Conversion Practices) Bill 2024 in Tasmania. As advocates for the wellbeing and safety of individuals and families impacted by family violence and gender-based violence, we express our reservations about the Bill’s current form and its potential implications.

Engender Equality is Tasmania’s statewide specialist family violence service, providing frontline counselling and support to all people affected by family violence and abuse, alongside advocacy, community education and training to address gender inequality and gendered violence in all its forms. Established in 1987, we are a Tasmanian leader in promoting gender equality and addressing family violence to benefit the whole community. We welcome the opportunity to comment on the Family Law Amendment Bill 2023.

Engender Equality provides specialist counselling, psychoeducation and support for individuals and groups affected by family violence throughout Tasmania, together with advocacy and training to address gender inequality and reduce violence against women and children.

Yemaya Women’s Support Service provides free and confidential counselling and support to women who are experiencing, or have experienced, abuse from an intimate partner. Together, we welcome the opportunity to provide a submission on the draft Family Violence Reforms Bill (the Bill).

Engender Equality is a Tasmanian specialist family violence service providing counselling, psychoeducation and support for all people affected by family and intimate partner violence, alongside advocacy, community education and training to address gender inequality and gendered violence in all its forms. We welcome the opportunity to comment on the Sentencing Amendment (Restorative Scheme) Bill 2021 (the Bill).

Engender Equality provides specialist counselling, psychoeducation and support for individuals and groups affected by family violence throughout Tasmania. Engender also delivers advocacy and training to address gender inequality and reduce violence against women and children. The safety and wellbeing of children is at the heart of our work as a specialist family violence service. Our practice is child-centred and we seek to elevate the interests of children in all that we do. Engender Equality strongly endorses the development of a legislative framework to uphold children’s safety in response to the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (the Royal Commission).

Children living in family violence situations are directly subjected to, and live within, the web of abuse woven by the dynamics of control and coercion maintained by people who use violence and abuse. A pattern of behaviour and coercively controlling tactics underpin the more obvious incidents of family violence that are widely referred to in legislation and policy. The same course of conduct often continues post-separation despite women trying to address their fears for this in the family law court.

Engender Equality is a highly specialised service provider that helps people of all genders through experiences of family violence, and seeks to provide training, advocacy opportunities, and contribute to the conversation around the prevention of family violence and gender inequality. Engender Equality is an accredited Our Watch training provider, and has run training on the national framework for the prevention of violence against women, Change the Story.

It is because of Engender Equality’s specialisation in primary prevention of violence against women that the organisation opposes aspects of the Religious Freedom Reforms. It is Engender Equality’s belief that the proposed legislative changes will undermine the national primary prevention framework and allow for individuals and groups to condone gendered violence (directly and indirectly), and impact negatively upon our ability to affect change for our service users. Engender Equality recommends, in particular, the exemption to Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Act 1998 Section 17(1) be removed from the proposed legislation.