Queensland minister Leeanne Enoch shares story of violence

A minister in Annastacia Palaszczuk’s cabinet has spoken of her personal experience of coercive control, as the state moves to strengthen its responses to domestic violence.

Queensland Communities and Housing Minister Leeanne Enoch. Picture: Lachie Millard

A minister in Annastacia Palaszczuk’s cabinet has spoken of her personal experience of domestic violence, as Queensland moves to become the second state in Australia to make coercive control an offence.

Speaking in support of the Combating Coercive Control Bill, which passed in parliament late Wednesday, Communities and Housing Minister Leeanne Enoch shared her story of abuse.

“It takes a lot to tell your story,” Ms Enoch told parliament.

“For me personally, having been a victim of domestic violence, having experienced coercive control as an adult, I know exactly those feelings.”

Ms Enoch said while being abused, her world became “very small”. “Every part of your life is under control, whether it is the 17 phone calls a day that you get, the asking where you are every minute, who you are talking to, what are you wearing.”

Queensland’s Bill broadens the definition of domestic violence to include a “pattern of behaviour”, and updates the definition of stalking to reflect modern tech­nology. It also strengthens the court’s consideration of previous domestic violence history and responses to cross application for protection orders.

Ms Enoch, the first Aboriginal woman elected to the Queensland parliament, welcomed the move as an important protection for Indigenous women and children, who experience domestic violence at significantly higher rates than non-Indigenous Australians. She said the Bill, which includes provisions to better identify the person most in need of protection, “will go a long way to address the cultural bias against First Nations women”, who are often mistakenly identified as perpetrators.

Coercive control describes a pattern of conduct aimed at dominating and controlling a partner, and is generally considered to be the most dangerous and harmful form of domestic violence.

The Queensland Bill has been touted as a precursor to plans by the Palaszczuk government to later this year make coercive control a specific criminal offence.

NSW is the only jurisdiction in the country to have a stand-alone coercive control offence after passing legislation in November. Nationally, Australia’s attorneys-general have drafted eight ­principles to address coercive control, due to be signed off in the next few months. The policy action was prompted by the shocking deaths of Hannah Clarke and her children Aaliyah, Laianah and Trey, in February 2020, when her former partner doused them in petrol and set them alight before killing himself.

Queensland Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman in parliament thanked Ms Clarke’s parents Sue and Lloyd for their “tireless advocacy” in increasing “community awareness on the dangers of coercive control”.

“As we pass the terrible anniversary of the murder of Hannah Clarke and her three children, I want her family and friends to know that this will be their legacy,” Ms Fentiman said. “This is about identifying and responding to the red flags of coercive control earlier before blue police tape surrounds another family home.”

The Combating Coercive Control Bill adopts several of the recommendations in the landmark Hear Her Voice domestic violence report released last year, headed by former president of the Queensland court of appeal Margaret McMurdo. The report gave 89 recommendations, including that a new offence of coercive control be implemented, but only after reforms had been made.