The Cook government is looking into how it could force tech companies to build in safeguards to stop their products being used by violent partners as a form of coercive control.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant issued a warning on Monday that technology was being used to facilitate abuse, including electric vehicles being used to surveil partners.
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Speaking after the 16 Days in WA family and domestic violence breakfast at Crown Perth this morning, Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence Minister Jess Stojkovski said that use of technology would be looked at as the state develops laws to ban coercive control – a form of abuse that includes restricting the freedoms and behaviours of a partner.
“That’s a wide range of what we’re looking at with the coercive control legislation, it is one of the reasons why it is a hard thing to legislate,” she said.
As part of the 16 Days in WA campaign, Premier Roger Cook laid out a new tranche of funding worth $110 million to combat rising rates of family and domestic violence in the state.
It includes $34.9 million to expand the FDV response teams to a 24/7 service in metro Perth, $45.8 million to enact recommendations from the FDV system reform plan and $14.4 million to support victim survivors.
The Greens announced they would create a specific spokesperson position in the party to target men’s violence against women, with leader Brad Pettitt to fill the role.
“For too long the burden of encouraging change to stop this crisis has fallen on women, often victim-survivors and advocates themselves, which is why I am stepping up to be the new Greens spokesperson for stopping men’s violence,” he said.
Cook said the party would not follow the Greens’ lead.
“I wish them all the very best. I am immensely impressed with the performance of Jess Stojkovski in this portfolio, so I think she’s the best person to be in that role at the moment,” he said.
