Category: Australia

Gender affirmative guidelines just an echo chamber: expert |The Australian

Dr Cass, a former president of the UK’s Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, participated in a panel live from the UK on Tuesday night, which was hosted by Australian psychiatrist Phillip Morris, the president of the ­National Association of Practising Psychiatrists, one of the first bodies to call for caution on experimental medical treatments and greater wholistic psychotherapy for young people with gender distress.
Dr Cass criticised the activist World Professional Association for Transgender Healthcare for essentially suppressing evidence that the standards of care it ­devised were not evidence-based and showed no proof of alleviating the distress of children.
These standards are followed by most of Australia’s major children’s hospitals that all frequently prescribe puberty blockers and hormone treatments to children and teenagers. Dr Cass noted in her independent report handed down in April that has been “highly influential in directing international practice, although its guidelines were found by the University of York’s appraisal to lack developmental rigour and transparency”. The Cass report included an appraisal by the University of York that analysed international gender affirmative care guidelines, including those of the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne. The review found its guidelines similarly lacked rigour and independence.
“The evidence base is weak … international guidelines have for the most part not followed standard evidence-based approaches,” Dr Cass told the Australian seminar. “And it has influenced most other international guidelines. There is a sort of echo chamber of sort of copying and pasting off each other. The only guidelines that have taken an independent and evidence based ­approach are the Swedish and the Finnish guidelines.”
All of Australia’s children’s hospitals including most of the country’s state health ministers have rejected the relevance of Dr Cass’s report to Australia for reasons that appear spurious given the fact that Dr Cass’s report examined gender affirming care models internationally, and that the deep research carried out by the independent review into puberty blockers is clearly relevant beyond the UK.

Source: Gender affirmative guidelines just an echo chamber: expert

More than half of Australian young people are using strangulation during sex: new research

We recently surveyed thousands of young Australians about their experiences of strangulation (or choking) during sex and found more than half (57%) reported being strangled by a partner during sex. About half (51%) said they had strangled their partner during sex.

But strangulation carries significant risks and harms to those who experience it, including the possibility of serious injury or even death, sometimes months after the event.

Participants most commonly reported first becoming aware of strangulation during sex when they were around 16–18 years old (29%), or during early adulthood, 19–21 years (24%).

People also reported they were exposed to information about or depictions of strangulation during sex through various sources, most commonly via pornography (61%), but also through movies (40%), friends (32%), social media (31%) and discussions with current or potential partners (29%).

More women (61%) than men (43%) reported ever having been strangled, with a high proportion of people who identified as trans or gender-diverse (78%) reporting being strangled.

More men (59%) than women (40%) responded they had strangled their partners, and nearly three-quarters (74%) of trans and gender-diverse participants reported that they had strangled their partners.

Strangulation is linked to many different kinds of injuries regardless of whether there is consent. These can include bruising, sore throat, neck pain, a hoarse voice, a cough, difficulty swallowing, swollen lips, nausea and vomiting.

Other more serious impacts include pregnancy miscarriage, unconsciousness, brain injury and death. Miscarriage and death can occur weeks or months after the initial strangulation.

Generally, there are no visible injuries associated with strangulation, but even when the person remains conscious, brain injury may occur. We know the more often people are strangled, the more likely they are to experience brain injury. This includes memory loss and difficulties problem-solving. Brain injury also accumulates so the more strangulations, the worse it becomes.

Strangulation has been criminalised across Australia because of the risk associated with it in the context of domestic violence and the harms linked with it more generally. But there are different rules across Australia about consent. And consent can be “blurry”.

Source: More than half of Australian young people are using strangulation during sex: new research

Police took nearly an hour to respond to triple-zero call while woman lay dying |SMH

An investigation has been launched into why it took police nearly an hour to acknowledge a triple-zero call to a house where a woman lay dying. The woman’s partner has since been charged with murder.

A call was made to triple zero shortly after 1.30am on Saturday after neighbours reportedly heard screaming from a residential home in Casino in the Northern Rivers.

Police failed to acknowledge the emergency call until 2.25am. When they arrived at the home two minutes later, they found the woman, aged in her 40s, unconscious but still breathing.

An ambulance was called, but the woman’s condition deteriorated and she died at the scene.

Police said the woman’s male partner, 31, had been charged with murder.

It’s the second domestic violence-related death in the state in two days after a woman was allegedly murdered by her housemate at Russell Lea in Sydney’s inner west on Thursday.

Source: 12ft

Women fleeing domestic violence are becoming homeless at alarming rates, and support services are struggling to keep up – ABC News

  • In short: Homelessness support services in Perth are seeing a spike in demand, with shelters at capacity.
  • Statistics show 45 per cent of Australian women seeking homelessness support services cite domestic violence as the key reason.
  • In the past decade, the number of women and children sleeping rough or in a car in WA has more than doubled.

Source: Women fleeing domestic violence are becoming homeless at alarming rates, and support services are struggling to keep up – ABC News

A Senate inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women and children wrapped up this week. Here’s what you need to know – ABC News

  • In short: A two-year Senate inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women and children has concluded.
  • Eighty-seven submissions were submitted to the inquiry and hearings were held across NSW, VIC, ACT, NT and WA.
  • What’s next? A final report with findings and recommendations will be released on June 30.

After 87 submissions and many traumatic stories shared by First Nations advocates and families across five states and territories, the last hearing has been held in Melbourne. But there are concerns it will not lead to effective action.

Source: A Senate inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women and children wrapped up this week. Here’s what you need to know – ABC News

Australia’s tax system is an unwitting ‘weapon’ family violence offenders use against their victims. These people want to stop it. – ABC News

  • In short: Family violence perpetrators are burdening their partners with tax debts they cannot shake, sometimes leading to bankruptcy.
  • A change in the federal budget means the tax office can defer chasing debts in certain circumstances.
  • What’s next? Advocates want the ATO to adopt a model used overseas, in which debts are reassigned to perpetrators.

The nature of coercive control, a combination of behaviours that restrict the lives and choices of people in abusive relationships, means some victim-survivors are unaware their personal details have been used to make them responsible for debts or appointed as company directors.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the tax office did not pursue debts.

But as restrictions ended and the economy took off, the ATO said it was owed more than $15 billion from 1.8 million entities and it set about chasing them up.

Research by Dr Kayis-Kumar and her project team reveals that approximately 14 per cent of women facing financial hardship due to tax debts have incurred them through situations involving intimate partner violence.

“We call it sexually transmitted debt,” she said.

“That person has used your name and business structures to put debts in your name and financially benefit.”

Dr Kayis-Kumar says our annual tax deadline of June 30 is the time to make that change in Australia.

“Economic abuse is something that we know is really problematic across our whole community, and we have an opportunity here for the ATO to turn things around,” she said.

Source: Australia’s tax system is an unwitting ‘weapon’ family violence offenders use against their victims. These people want to stop it. – ABC News

WGEA Commonwealth Public Sector Gender Equality Scorecard | WGEA

The Commonwealth Public Sector Gender Scorecard: Key Employer Results From 2022 provides a unique record of workplace gender equality in the Commonwealth Public Sector.

It features the results from WGEA’s Employer Census of Commonwealth public sector employers with 100 or more employees.

In late 2023, Commonwealth public sector employers reported to WGEA for the first time. WGEA received reports (covering the period 1 January to 31 December 2022) from a total of 116 employers, covering 338,951 employees. This Australian-first report examines the composition, pay and actions these employers are taking to drive gender equality.

The big picture

  • of 339,951 employees, 43.5% are women and 56.3% are men
  • the gender pay gap is 13.5% and 50% of employer gender pay gaps are above 6.9%
  • on average, women earn 86 cents for ever dollar earned by men
  • this adds up to women earning $19,007 less than men per year
  • men are 2.5 times likely to be in the highest earning quartile than women
  • only 11% of universal parental leave is taken by men
  • 55% of employers have a gender-balanced board
  • 42% of Chairs are women

Source: WGEA Commonwealth Public Sector Gender Equality Scorecard | WGEA

Consultation open: All-gender sanitary facilities | ABCB

We are consulting on the potential inclusion of all-gender bathroom provisions in the National Construction Code (NCC). We want to hear if, and how, the suggested changes will impact your work.

Source: Consultation open: All-gender sanitary facilities | ABCB

Can cheating amount to coercive control? – Lawyers Weekly

Ashley Madison is an online dating service and social networking platform marketed to people who are married or in committed relationships. The website is known for its slogan, “Life is short. Have an affair.”

It has faced criticism and controversy for promoting infidelity. It is currently trending on Netflix and has generated quite the water cooler conversation about the personal and legal ramifications of cheating.

One colleague informed me that at his “peak” (pardon the pun), he could have up to 30 intimate partners a week. Frankly, I am not sure where he found the time or stamina, but he clearly has a good PT and physio.

On a serious note, I have had many clients (and colleagues) ask me if having an affair is illegal/criminal in Victoria. My high-level advice is:

Affairs can be a form of coercive control (i.e., family violence). When one partner engages in an affair, they are often exerting power and control over their partner by betraying their trust, manipulating their emotions, and causing emotional harm.

The affair can be used to control the partner’s behaviour, emotions, and choices by threatening to leave them or using the affair to manipulate and gaslight them. In some cases, the affair may also involve physical or sexual coercion, further reinforcing the power dynamics in the relationship.

Overall, affairs can be a form of coercive control and can have damaging effects on the partner who is being manipulated and controlled.

This can warrant an intervention order being granted against the person having an affair (on the grounds that family violence has been committed).

While coercive control or having an affair are not criminal acts/able to be prosecuted in Victoria, if committed when an intervention order is in place, this behaviour could constitute a breach of the order and result in criminal charges.

Whereas, currently in Tasmania and from July 2024 in NSW and from 2025 in Queensland, coercive control is a criminal offence.

So before having a fling, or if you’re looking for an extramarital relationship on or offline, consider the above legal ramifications.

[Ed: Interesting legal perspective – perhaps wishful thinking. Coercive control laws commence in NSW from 1 July 2024. See here for more information. Only time will tell how broadly they will be applied. To date police and courts have been typically reluctant to act on psychological abuse when there is no physical element. Frankly if an AVO or IVO is already in place, it seems odd to have an expectation of fidelity. It is to be hoped these laws are not used to further control and coerce women rather than curb male cruelty.]

Source: Can cheating amount to coercive control? – Lawyers Weekly

The Sydney suburbs that are home to thousands of guns | SMH

A rise in the number of guns in NSW has sparked concern over how they are controlled, with firearms licences this year handed to people with histories of mental illness and violent behaviour, despite police objections.

The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal overturned a decision not to grant someone a firearm once every two weeks in May and June this year, prompting concern from public health experts. Police tried to block those people from accessing a gun because they alleged they had histories of mental illness, schizophrenia, or violent or threatening behaviour.

The number of registered firearms in NSW jumped from just over 1 million in 2020 to 1,112,734 at the end of last year, and some suburbs of Sydney are now home to thousands of firearms. An extra 10,000 people have also been granted a gun licence in that time, with 251,563 now legally able to own and shoot a gun.

Under NSW law, firearms use is considered a privilege and the applicant must be deemed a fit and proper person to own a gun without being a danger to public safety, as judged by the NSW Police. Refusals can be challenged via an internal review, and any final decision can be challenged at the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Last year an extra 7000 people listed sport target shooting as the reason for needing the firearms licence compared to 2020.

NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson said the reasons for accessing firearms should be reviewed and novel solutions were needed to make sure suburban homes were not becoming boltholes for guns.

“The data suggests the uptick is because people are using a gun for fun, and this is no laughing matter. It’s very concerning that this is resulting in a concentration of lethal weapons in the community in particular suburbs and localities, such as western and south-western Sydney,” she said.

“Guns for recreation do not necessarily need to be owned personally and stored away from the purpose-built place they are used … When access to guns becomes more commonplace, it is inevitable that people will become more exposed to gun violence.”

Source: 12ft