New phase for WA coercive control education campaign

The latest phase of the Western Australian Government’s education campaigns aimed at raising awareness of the signs and dangers of coercive control has been launched.

The new instalment of the education campaigns ‘Coercion Hurts’ and ‘A Story That’s Not Ours’ were developed with insight from victim-survivors, stakeholders and advocates. The campaigns depict scenarios of behaviours that perpetrators use to coercively control their intimate partner, highlighting the subtle yet damaging form of family and domestic violence. 

Behaviours such as isolating the person from their family and friends, manipulating them into doubting their reality, monitoring their movements without consent, and restricting access to financial resources are shown in live-action and animation.

“The WA Government’s family and domestic violence campaigns are a crucial part of educating the community about coercive control and the impact it has on a victim-survivor, and sending the message that it is a form of family and domestic violence,” said WA Premier, Roger Cook.

“These campaigns build on the range of systematic and legislative reforms already underway to protect and support victim-survivors and hold perpetrators accountable.

“My government continues to invest in initiatives to prevent family and domestic violence and we’re always looking at ways to better protect victim-survivors of family domestic violence and the community.”

The emotive ‘Coercion Hurts’ videos have been displayed on social media more than 7.85 million times. The animated videos in four Aboriginal languages in the ‘A Story That’s Not Ours’ campaign, which used cultural storytelling techniques, were displayed more than two million times in a three-month period.  

In addition, a coercive control and family and domestic violence online hub providing important resources for victim-survivors, perpetrators and the public has been viewed almost 178,000 times by people seeking to learn more about recognising the signs, searching for helpful resources and finding out where to go for help.

The hub also offers valuable coercive control resources such as an easy read booklet for low literacy audiences, a culturally safe webpage for Aboriginal audiences, posters and social tiles in 36 languages, fact sheet, videos on coercive control, and visual content such as infographics to support learning and awareness.

“Coercive Control is a term that people in Western Australia are hearing more about and understanding it is a form of family and domestic violence – these two campaigns are playing an important role in achieving that,” said Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence Minister, Jessica Stojkovski.

“Coercive control is an insidious form of family and domestic violence that takes away a person’s freedom and independence and can seriously affect their safety, mental and physical health, employment, relationships, financial security and sense of autonomy – and no one should experience that.

“I am committed to reducing family and domestic violence in Western Australia, and these education campaigns are just one of many ways the WA Government is funding initiatives to address the issue.”

The launch of the second phase of the campaigns comes ahead of National Domestic and Family Violence Remembrance Day on Wednesday 7 May.

Phase 2 of the campaigns will be in market across a variety of channels including TV, press, radio, digital and social and out of home.

To see the campaigns and learn more about coercive control, visit wa.gov.au/coercivecontrol and wa.gov.au/familyviolence.