In 2023, the Queensland Government proudly introduced and passed legislation designed to criminalise behaviour in intimate personal relationships known as “coercive control”. To many, this was a long awaited positive development in the policing of certain types of DV. However as with all things, the devil is in the detail. And while the big picture goals behind the new criminal laws might be laudable, the drafting of the laws in question leave plenty to be desired. The laws as drafted potentially criminalise a large swathe of perfectly reasonable, lawful, normal and frequent behaviours in personal intimate relationships. E.g, the person who controls the money in a family, of course, has significant power over the actions of others. So, can insisting that someone stop spending money to save the family some money be an offence now? Let's look at a scenario. Joe and Mary are about to have their first baby. Joe has realised that with the little one arriving soon they need to budget a bit. Mary has a weekly get together with friends at a restaurant and they take turns paying for each other’s meals. Joe tells Mary that as part of their new budget this will need to stop. Here, Joe is arguably being “coercive”. Arguably he is also controlling Mary by telling her she can’t spend money. The only question mark here is whether Joe’s request is “unreasonable” which is going to involve testing all the circumstances.
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