Culturally and linguistically diverse communities

You have the right to feel safe, loved, respected, and supported in your relationships.

You should feel valued and free to be yourself and make your own decisions.

Coercive control is often a defining feature in domestic and family violence.

Coercive control describes a pattern of harmful behaviors deliberately used by the abusive person to control, manipulate, and dominate the other person.

It can include patterns of physical or non-physical abuse to deliberately hurt, humiliate, isolate, frighten, or threaten you in order to control you. It creates an atmosphere of fear and dependency and can make you feel trapped in your relationship.

There's no place for control in a healthy relationship. Coercive control can happen in different types of relationships, including current or former partners, family members, or informal caregivers.

If you experience coercive control, it's never your fault. It is important to know the signs of coercive control because it can be subtle and hard to notice. It may escalate over time.

A person using violence may constantly monitor you, your phones, computer, and other devices without your permission, track your location, abuse or humiliate you on social media, or control who you talk to, control who you see, what you wear, and where you go. Deny your everyday needs like medication, food, or exercise. restrict your use of money or stop you from working, force you to have sex or do sexual acts, block your access to education or from learning English, stop you from practicing your religion or culture or attending cultural events, threaten to harm you, your family, your children, your friends, or your pets. Disclose your personal information to other people such as your gender, sexuality, or HIV status. Withhold your passport, threaten to have you deported, or to have your children taken from you, criticize or blame you until you doubt yourself.

From the 26th of May, 2025, coercive control will be against the law in Queensland. If convicted, there are severe penalties, including up to 14 years in prison. If you feel like your relationship isn't healthy, and there are signs of controlling behavior that are intimidating, hurtful, scary, or isolating, you're right to check if it's coercive control.

A healthy relationship is based on trust, respect, open communication, and honesty. If you think you or someone you know might be in a harmful relationship or experiencing coercive control, further information and support is available to you.

You have the right to feel safe, loved, respected, and supported in your relationships. You should feel valued, and free to be yourself and make your own decisions.

There's no place for control in a healthy relationship. If you think you or someone you know might be in a harmful relationship or experiencing coercive control, further information and support is available to you.