Exclusive: Hannah Clarke’s parents welcome Annastacia Palaszczuk’s appointment of a taskforce to investigate how to legislate coercive control
Amanda Gearing
The Guardian
February 17, 2021
The parents of Hannah Clarke have welcomed moves to criminalise coercive control in Queensland as they approach the first anniversary of their daughter’s murder by her husband.
The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, announced the formation of a taskforce to consult with legal and domestic violence experts and victims to make coercively controlling behaviours crimes on Wednesday.
“Coercive control is a really severe form of oppression that can last months if not years,” she said.
Lloyd and Sue Clarke: 'Coercive control laws could have saved Hannah and her three children'
The premier said her government wanted to do everything possible to prevent intimate partner homicides, as a government, as a taskforce and as a community.
“It’s not good enough and it’s not on. And today we draw a line in the sand.”
In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Lloyd and Sue Clarke said the appointment of the taskforce to report back to the Queensland government by October this year was a timely initiative.
“I’m very happy that the taskforce is a very positive step forward and I hope coercive control will be legislated,” Sue Clarke said. “We are pleased that Queensland is doing it first.”
Sue Clarke said she would like the rest of Australia to enact similar laws to enable law enforcement and domestic violence services to better protect victims of non-physical and physical domestic violence.
“I’d like the whole of Australia to follow suit,” she said. “I can’t see why coercive control can’t be made a crime Australia-wide.”
Lloyd Clarke said he would like coercive control to be legislated “next week” but he understood the need for thorough preparation of the legislation to ensure its effectiveness.
“We need to get this right,” he said. “Every one of these perpetrators is the same – like there’s a handbook that’s given out to them.”
He said he and his wife would give the taskforce all the information they could to assist with making the new laws.
Former court of appeal judge Margaret McMurdo AC will chair the taskforce. The other members are yet to be announced.
The Queensland attorney general, Shannon Fentiman, announced on Wednesday that she hoped to introduce legislation into the Queensland parliament at the beginning of next year.
The need for legislation was raised after the murder of Hannah and her three children, Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, 4 and Trey, 3, by her husband, who ambushed them on their way to school, poured petrol in their car and set the car on fire.
Before her death, Hannah had been subjected to years of coercive control by her husband, who isolated her from family and friends, tracked her movements, controlled who she spoke to, what she wore, where she went, when she slept and whether she saw a doctor.
Research in Britain and other countries has shown that coercive control is more highly correlated with intimate partner homicide than physical abuse.
However, several types of coercive controlling behaviour are not direct crimes in Australia.
Coercive control was made a crime in England, Ireland and Wales in 2015 and in Scotland in 2018.
Hannah’s parents did not realise the extent of the control she had suffered or the seriousness of the danger to her and their grandchildren.
However, since their deaths on 19 February 2020, the couple has campaigned for coercive and controlling behaviours to be designated as crimes in Australia.
Fentiman said the Palaszczuk government would seek community input on the proposed laws.
“It needs to be considered from all perspectives to ensure we get it right,” she said.
“We will consult with a wide range of survivors, domestic and sexual violence service providers, legal and domestic violence experts and the community.
“That includes Hannah Clarke’s parents, Lloyd and Sue, in the development of a new approach to coercive control.”
Police and other first responders will be provided with training to recognise and respond to coercive control, as well as developing a community awareness campaign, Fentiman said.
She said she was confident in the leadership of McMurdo to help the government deliver strong and carefully considered new laws.
Lloyd and Sue Clarke have invited people to light a candle in memory of Hannah and her children between 5.30pm and sunset on Friday.
Lloyd Clarke said there would not be an organised commemoration gathering due to Covid-19 regulations but people could gather informally at the memorial to Hannah at Hannah’s Place, 147 Samuel Street, Camp Hill, on the weekend.
https://amp.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/17/queensland-moves-to-criminalise-coercive-control-after-of-hannah-clarke-and-her-children
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