Update on Elder Abuse and Coercive Control in Australia

In February 2023, HopgoodGanim Lawyers published a report on elder abuse and coercive control in Australia (Initial Report) which highlighted the exclusion, in some instances, of elder abuse in broader coercive control reforms (for example, in the NSW Government’s criminalisation of coercive control).

Since then, there has been further coercive control law and policy reform across a number of jurisdictions. Created in collaboration with Townsville Community Law, the purpose of this article is to:

1. provide an update on where elder abuse¹ sits within broader recent discussions and law reform on coercive control in Australia since February 2023;
2. encourage key stakeholders, including national and state and territory governments, to continue to include elder abuse in these important reforms; and
3. share useful resources on the law and policy relating to coercive control and elder abuse in Australia.

Why does this matter?

As our population ages, elder abuse is expected to increase.² The decline in both physical and mental capacities in people aged over 60, together with the increased reliance on others, including partners, carers and family, increases the possibility for users of abuse and violence to exercise coercive control.³ Further, the impacts of coercive control can be particularly significant on older people with reduced intrinsic capacity and less resilience to cope with psychological injuries caused by the abuse.⁴

The abuse of an older person is most commonly at the hands of the person’s adult child.⁵ If we limit important aspects of our coercive control law and policy reform to intimate partner abuse and violence, we limit the legal protections available to older victim-survivors of coercive control and send a message that what they are experiencing is not a crime and/or not coercive control.

What needs to change?

Statutory definitions of coercive control align with the accepted definition of elder abuse in Australia. Accordingly, elder abuse must be included in all coercive control reform packages, across Australia, to ensure that older people experiencing coercive control receive necessary legal and social support, and education and awareness.

Changes since February 2023

On 22 September 2023, the Standing Council of Attorneys-General released the National Principles to Address Coercive Control in Family and Domestic Violence (National Principles).⁶ Fortunately, the language used in the National Principles differs from that in the Consultation Draft of the National Principles, with the focus shifting from intimate partner violence to broader situations of family domestic violence and by implication and context, also violence, abuse and neglect of older people. The Federal Government has also released a suite of factsheets on understanding coercive control, including a specific factsheet on 'Understanding how coercive control can affect older people'.

Queensland and New South Wales are the first two state or territory governments to pass laws making coercive control a standalone criminal offence. This includes recognising that coercive control affects older people and is one manifestation of the violence, abuse and neglect they experience.

Queensland

The Queensland Government has committed to system-wide reform to respond to coercive control. This involves increased awareness-raising in the community, and training, education and change management across the justice system. The State’s reform package includes a coercive control communication framework, which identifies older people as a target audience and addresses specific considerations for engagement with older people.⁷

On 6 March 2024, Queensland introduced a standalone criminal offence of coercive control through the passing of the Criminal Law (Coercive Control and Affirmative Consent) and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2024 (Qld) (Qld Act), which is expected to commence in 2025 and will carry a maximum jail sentence of 14 years.⁸ The offence extends to domestic relationships, which includes an intimate personal relationship, a family relationship, or an informal care relationship.⁹ The State’s civil protection regime was also recently amended to recognise coercive control as domestic violence.¹⁰ Once these provisions commence, Queensland’s older victim-survivors of coercive control will have options for legal protection irrespective of whether their abuser is an intimate partner, family member or informal carer.

New South Wales

In New South Wales, the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Coercive Control) Act 2022 (NSW) (NSW Act) will commence on 1 July 2024. It creates a standalone criminal offence of coercive control punishable by up to 7 years imprisonment.¹¹ The offence is limited to coercive behaviours committed in intimate partner relationships. Domestic relationships, such as between parents and adult children, are not included in New South Wales’s criminalisation of coercive control. Amendments have been made to the State’s civil protection regime to expand the meaning of ‘domestic abuse’ to include behaviour that coerces or controls¹² and this regime does extend to ‘people in a domestic relationship’, including a current or former relative and where a person is living or has lived in the same household as the other person.¹³

South Australia

In South Australia, the Government released its draft Criminal Law Consolidation (Coercive Control) Amendment Bill 2023 (SA) (SA Bill), which seeks to introduce a criminal offence of coercive control, limited to intimate relationships. The Government also released Discussion and Summary Paper’s targeting different communities who are impacted by coercive control, however it does not include older people as a specific community. Whilst South Australia’s civil protection regime extends to broader family relationships¹⁴, unfortunately, the proposed amendments to the State’s civil protection regime do not address coercive control and the Government has not indicated an intention to do so.¹⁵

Western Australia

In November 2023, the Government of Western Australia confirmed its intention to criminalise coercive control through a phased approach, and to amend the civil protection regime to better address coercive control. This was accompanied by the release of the Office of the Commissioner for Victims of Crime report on legislative responses to coercive control, which acknowledged coercive control within a range of different relationships including older people and children in their own right.¹⁶ The Government has formed a special taskforce to help guide the next phase of the State’s commitment to address family and domestic violence, including through consulting with people who have lived experience of coercive control.¹⁷ We are hopeful that the Government of Western Australia will follow Queensland’s lead and extend the criminalisation of coercive control beyond intimate partners to provide a range of legal protections for older victim-survivors of coercive control.

Northern Territory

In December 2023, the Northern Territory’s civil protection regime was amended to recognise coercive control in domestic relationships, but no standalone criminal offence of coercive control has been introduced.¹⁸

All other states

Since our Initial Report, there have been no relevant coercive control reforms in Tasmania, Victoria or the Australian Capital Territory.

To keep track of coercive control law and policy reform across Australia, please see our online Coercive Control Reform Tracker.

Where to next?

As the prevalence of elder abuse is set to increase, it is crucial that law and policy reform on coercive control includes older people. Focusing coercive control reforms on intimate partner relationships excludes the majority of older people experiencing this abuse.

Whilst criminalisation of coercive control is not enough to achieve meaningful outcomes, a comparison of the coercive control measures in Queensland and New South Wales suggests that limiting the criminal offence of coercive control to intimate partner relationships may correlate with the exclusion of older people from broader coercive control reform packages. It appears that the Queensland Government is giving more attention to elder abuse in the context of coercive control than in New South Wales, for example through inclusion of older people in its coercive control communication framework and its dedicated webpage explaining elder abuse. Queensland is recognising that elder abuse includes coercive control and that coercive control, when committed against older people, is elder abuse.

The statutory review of the NSW Act in 2026 will create an opportunity to consider whether there is a need to broaden the offence of coercive control to capture domestic relationships.¹⁹

Furthermore, governments must take a holistic approach to reform, including education and training across different sectors such as the health, justice and social services sectors. Adequate funding, monitoring and regular system evaluation are all critical to successfully implement coercive control reforms. 

¹ We have chosen to use the phrase ‘elder abuse’ for simplicity and consistency with several resources we reference. We do note, however, that the phrase ‘abuse of older people’ is preferred by some communities; in particular, First Nations communities.
² Queensland Law Society, Elder Abuse (Joint Issues Paper, Office of the Public Advocate, February 2022) 9; Western Australia, Parliamentary Debates, Legislative Council, 13 September 2017, 12 (Mr Matthew Swinbourn); Victorian Government, Data collection standards - Older people, VIC Government (Web Page, 10 January 2022).
³ Jasmine MacDonald et al, What the research evidence tells us about coercive control victimisation (Policy and Practice Paper, Australian Institute of Family Studies. February 2024) 39. 
⁴ World Health Organization, World Report on Ageing and Health (2015) 74.
⁵ Australian Government, National Elder Abuse Prevalence Study: Final Report (Report, December 2021) 2.
⁶ Australian Government, Attorney-General’s Department, National Principles to Address Coercive Control in Family and Domestic Violence (2023).
⁷ Queensland Government, Coercive control communication framework 2024-27 (6 March 2024) 36.
⁸ Criminal Law (Coercive Control and Affirmative Consent) and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2024 (Qld) s 334C.
⁹ Domestic relationship is defined as a ‘relevant relationship’ under s 13 of the Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 2012 (Qld).
¹⁰ The Domestic and Family Violence Protection (Combating Coercive Control) and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2023 (Qld) commenced on 1 August 2023 and amended the definition of ‘domestic violence’ in the Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 2012 (Qld), to refer to ‘a pattern of behaviour’. This change recognises that domestic violence includes behaviours that occur over a period of time and / or where behaviour involves more than 1 act, or a series of acts.
¹¹ Crimes Legislation Amendment (Coercive Control) Act 2022 (NSW) s 54D.
¹² On 19 February 2024 the Crimes (Domestic and Personal Violence) Act 2007 (NSW) was amended; see s 6A.
¹³ Ibid; see s 5 for the definition of ‘domestic relationship’.
¹⁴ See section 7 Intervention Orders (Prevention of Abuse) Act 2009 (SA)
¹⁵ Once assented, the Intervention Orders (Prevention of Abuse) (Section 31 Offences) Amendment Bill 2024 (SA) will amend the Intervention Orders (Prevention of Abuse) Act 2009 (SA).
¹⁶ Government of Western Australia, Legislative responses to coercive control in Western Australia - Consultation outcomes report (2023).
¹⁷ The Government of Western Australia proposes to reform its civil protection regime by amending the definition of 'family violence' in the Restraining Orders Act 1997 (WA) to include specific reference to coercive control, the patterned nature of these behaviours and their cumulative impact.
¹⁸ Justice Legislation Amendment (Domestic and Family Violence) Act 2023 (NT) was assented on 6 December 2023 and commenced on 25 March 2024; ss 5 and 9 of the Domestic and Family Violence Act 2007 (NT) provide the definitions of ‘domestic violence’ and ‘domestic relationship’.
¹⁹ The amendments in the NSW Act are to be reviewed periodically by the Minister, with the first review set to occur in February 2026. The Minister will be required to review, amongst other things, whether the offence should apply to relationships other than current and former partner relationships; see ss 54J(2), 54J(4) of the NSW Act.