Harming or threatening pets would be a family violence offence under Tasmanian independent MPs push
By Sophie Jaggers
Posted to ABC News, 05/08/24 – 8:59am (Updated 05/08/24 – 11:57am)
Independent MP David O’Byrne is proposing a change to Tasmania’s family violence laws to include harming, or threatening to harm, animals as a form of family violence.
Support services say instances of threats to harm pets are “incredibly common” in abusive relationships.
Mr O’Byrne plans to table his proposal in state parliament this week, with the government saying it is willing to “consider” the legislation and let parliament decide.
Independent, David O'Byrne is set to table a new bill in Parliament aimed at protecting people and pets fleeing family violence
Broadcast on Nightly News 7 Tasmania, 04/08/24
Independent, David O’Byrne is set to table a new bill in Parliament this week aimed at protecting people and pets fleeing family violence. It comes at a time when coercive control is rife amongst communities, with Tasmania looking to fall in line with legislation in other states.
Tasmania remembers domestic violence victims with candlelight vigils
By Pulse Tasmania, 01/05/24 – 7:00pm
Hundreds of Tasmanians gathered in Hobart, Launceston and Ulverstone to remember victims of domestic violence.
Families of victim survivors joined advocates and community members in lighting candles to honour those who have lost their lives on the national day of remembrance.
Family abuse survivor speaks out about Police Family Violence Orders
By Jess Flint
Posted to The Advocate online, 14/03/24 – 4:30pm (Updated 15/03/23)
Engender Equality released a report that explores the phenomenon of misidentification of predominant aggressors in Tasmania – put simply, this refers to incidents where a victim of abuse may be incorrectly identified as the perpetrator.
Contributing factors to misidentification may include instances where aggression was displayed as a response to abuse in retaliation, frustration, or self-defence.
The report noted that Tasmanian Police have the ability to issue on-the-spot PFVOs of up to 12 months. In other Australian jurisdictions, on-the-spot orders are temporary and last between 24 hours and 28 days.
Labor's Michelle O'Byrne says PFVO review 'entirely appropriate'
By Jess Flint
Posted to The Advocate online 15/03/23 – 6:34pm
Calls for a review into the application of Police Family Violence Orders (PFVO) have grown in response to concerns about the misidentification of family violence aggressors.
Woman living with autism is accused of being the aggressor
By Peter Vincent
Posted to Daily Mail Australia online 05/03/23 – 16:50 (Updated 05/03/23 15:24)
A woman living with autism phoned police for help after she was assaulted by her partner before she was mistakenly identified as the aggressor. Anna* was heaped with the blame despite her partner crushing her into a door at his home in southern Tasmania during an argument over money in 2021.
Her story comes after a report was released this week showing people who were mistakenly identified as aggressors were struggling to have their names cleared.
Police family violence orders are supposed to keep victims safe
By Hayley Gleeson
Posted by ABC News online 05/03/23 – 5:00am (Updated 05/03/23 – 10:51am)
For years domestic violence workers around Australia have been warning of a growing misidentification crisis: of mounting cases where police have mistaken the victim for the perpetrator and taken out an intervention order against them or charged them with criminal offences. Often it’s because female victims have presented as “hostile” or “hysterical” — or because they’ve fought back or defended themselves — and police haven’t gathered all the facts, or dug into the couple’s history of coercive control, or realised an abuser is trying to manipulate the system.
The dangerous form of abuse around food that often goes unnoticed
By Kellie Scott
Posted to ABC Everyday online 7/02/23
“I was constantly run off my feet so I could never take a moment to myself for anything”. – Nova, late 20s
Food control is a form of coercive control that is often invisible and potentially life-threatening, explains Alina Thomas, the CEO of Engender Equality.
Food control was just one aspect of abuse Nova experienced in the relationship she has since escaped.
“If he didn’t want to eat what I was making, he would demand I leave to get something else for him,” Nova, in her late 20s, says.
“He’d say he’d watch what I was cooking, then allow it to burn while I was gone so … me and my children would have nothing”.
Other times, he would give food set aside for her children to his pet dogs, or take it out of the fridge so it went bad.
Nova’s ex would steal money she needed for groceries, make negative comments about her body, stop her from exercising, and criticise her food choices.
He would also make demands around food that impacted her ability to complete basic daily tasks, like showering.
“Every time he wanted a coffee or something to eat, he would have me drop whatever I was doing to make it for him. Like stopping me from bathing, or [he would] wake me up in the middle of the night to go make him what he wanted”.
Deborah thought her abuse was normal - but a late autism diagnosis changed everything
By Megan Oliver, with photography by Maren Preuss
Posted on ABC online 09/01/23 – 5:10am (Updated 9/01/23 – 11:33am)
All I ever learned was that it was my fault. I had some dark fault inside me where I was always getting it wrong. – Deborah Hunter
Deborah Hunter always knew she was different from those around her — she communicated differently and struggled socially, but didn’t know why.
“I took it to be some kind of intrinsic naivety. I never seemed to get it right,” she said.
“Even when I tried to be a ‘good girl’ and behave as appropriate or expected, I was forever getting things wrong.”
The emotional and physical abuse started in Deborah’s family home, but she didn’t realise it was abuse.
Tasmanian woman shares experiences of family violence ahead of election
By Bec Pridham
Posted to The Examiner online 10/04/22 – 3:30am
Charlotte’s* first encounter with family violence was as a child. Living with incessant bullying and harassment in her family home, she was forced to flee in the middle of the night at age 16.
The violence left behind a devastating legacy that followed her into her intimate relationships – the trauma, coupled with her disability, leaving Charlotte vulnerable.
“It’s often expressed that autistic people lack empathy. You could describe that as a disability in communication. We are unable to perceive simple conversational cues, and this causes people to be uncomfortable. It causes misunderstandings both ways. It causes a lot of conflict,” she said.
“Relationship after relationship the men learned to manipulate [me], a person with autism, to manipulate to the point of an autistic meltdown, and they then claimed ‘see, look what you made me do’.”
“Then they punch you.”
Charlotte met the father of her son at a young age.
She fell pregnant early into the relationship, which left her feeling locked in.
“I had a strong sense of needing to survive. If it hadn’t been for my son, I wouldn’t have”.
Her partner was violent and coercive, taking her car keys so she could not escape, controlling how she spent her money, forcing all the child caring responsibilities upon her.
“My partner broke my neck and (according to him) it was my fault. And once it happens time after time after time after time, you’re convinced that it’s your fault.”
She never recovered from the incident, left physically disabled and in constant pain.
“I didn’t leave him until my son was 16 months old.”
While each victim’s story is nuanced and incredibly complex, Charlotte’s escape from violence is somewhat of an anomaly.
She did not leave. He did.
“I wasn’t going to leave. I wasn’t going to run again.”
“It’s very shameful to admit to domestic violence and so you don’t. And so I’ve suffered in silence. I took it to be my fault and tried to be a good girl. People leaving abusive relationships shouldn’t be made to think it’s their own fault”.
Charlotte said she was “lucky” to have a close circle of friends she could lean on. They began inviting themselves to dinner at her home every evening, telling her partner he needed to leave. After three months, he succumbed to the pressure, and moved out.
Charlotte did not receive her autism diagnosis until later in life, when her complex post traumatic stress disorder rendered her unable to manage her life.
“I was forced to begin to address the abuse in my adolescence in the family home, the reason I had to leave, why it came to that. If I’d only known earlier, if there was only enough support … I cannot stress how vital that diagnosis is.”
Charlotte said Australia’s family violence situation has made little progress since she left decades ago.
“People who are suffering from gaps in equality, people that are leaving violent and abusive relationships or families, are still at a disadvantage as much as they were 30 years ago. They really are. And this is both in terms of society acceptance and lack of support”.
“It’s very shameful to admit to domestic violence and so you don’t. And so I’ve suffered in silence. I took it to be my fault and tried to be a good girl”.
“People leaving abusive relationships shouldn’t be made to think it’s their own fault.”
It is a message resounding from those working in the family violence sector, who point out that raising the profile of women is desperately needed if Australia is to really address the issue.
Women’s Legal Service Tasmania chief executive Yvette Cehtel said Australia’s focus needed to be on primary prevention, not just early intervention and response.
“If we want to change attitudes and the way people behave, then we need to get in early and we need to do it before there’s a problem and we need to have nuanced conversations with all of our young people about what respectful behaviour looks like,” she said.
Ms Cehtel said she was looking at the government to implement a positive duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment and promote gender equality.
She said we should understand family violence as being on the extreme end of a continuum of inequality.
“The attitudes and the behaviours that allow unequal treatment of women is all along that continuum,” she said.
“If we’ve got one in three people at work being sexually harassed, we’ve got a massive problem with equality in the country.”
Ms Cehtel referred to the Kate Jenkins report, Set the Standard, which lists diversity, equality and inclusion as requirements of a safe and respectful workplace.
Launceston White Ribbon Committee secretary Carol Fuller said there was a difference between equality and equity.
“Women aren’t the same as men, so they have different needs. And to live a successful life and contribute all that we can to society, we need equity,” she said.
“Equity means that because we’re different, we need different systems. We need different processes that allow equality to happen.”
Ms Fuller said the government focused much of its resources on supporting people in danger, but needed to look at the bigger picture.
“What I would like to see, what White Ribbon would like to see, is stepping back and stopping it before it even starts,” she said.
“You can’t do that immediately, it’s a long-term drawn out changing of societal attitudes.”
Ms Fuller pointed to harmful gender stereotypes, sexist language and jokes, unequal laws and unequal pay as factors that might seem innocuous, but lay the foundation for violence.
She wanted to see the government pour the same efforts it did into changing societal attitudes to smoking, using the same consistent, prolonged and broad campaigning.
“I don’t think the government can do anything immediately in terms of stopping it … there’s no magic wand. This is going to take generations. But we’ve got to start now,” she said.
The state government launched the Safe Homes, Families, Communities plan in 2019, investing $26 million over three years in responding to and preventing family and sexual violence.
In March, the Commonwealth committed $20 million to electronically monitor high-risk perpetrators deemed high-risk.
Charlotte has been working through her PTSD with professional help.
She has also become an advocate for change, helping other women.
“If people know that someone like me has pushed through it, then anyone can do it,” she said.