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‘You can’t educate your way out of violence if th… | National Indigenous Times

All entries on Feminist Legal Clinic’s News Digest Blog are extracts from news articles and other publications, with the source available at the link at the bottom. The content is not originally generated by Feminist Legal Clinic and does not necessarily reflect our views.

Governments across Australia have poured millions into coercive-control campaigns, but domestic violence advocate Ashlee Donohue says the failure to properly fund frontline services is leaving Aboriginal women at deadly risk.

“You can’t educate your way out of violence if women have nowhere safe to go,” Ms Donohue said.

Coercive control is defined by governments as a pattern of repeated behaviours — including manipulation, intimidation, isolation and financial control, and physical violence — used to dominate a partner and strip away their autonomy.

Ms Donohue, a proud Dunghutti woman, does not dispute the harm coercive control causes but she argues public messaging is being prioritised over the practical infrastructure women need to survive.

She wants governments to invest far more heavily in what she calls the “on-the-ground basics”: safe houses, women’s refuges, crisis accommodation, transport, and properly staffed services for women trying to leave violent relationships; especially in regional and remote Australia.

“It’s our women who end up being put in police cells and hospital beds, and too often they die from injuries caused by domestic violence.”

Across Australia, Aboriginal women are 34 times more likely than non-Aboriginal women to experience domestic and family violence, and to be hospitalised or killed as a result.

Source: ‘You can’t educate your way out of violence if th… | National Indigenous Times

Repeated brain injuries linked to memory changes in intimate partner violence survivors, study finds – ABC News

In short:

An Australian-first study has found evidence of memory changes among women who experienced more than six brain injuries as a result of concussions and strangulation from intimate partner violence.

The Monash University researchers say women who experience violence are less likely to be diagnosed and treated for brain injury compared to sportspeople.

What’s next:

Advocates say there needs to be more awareness about the risks among health professionals and women who experience family violence.

—-

The peer-reviewed study, led by Monash University researchers and published in the Journal of Neurotrauma, was based on comparative cognitive assessments of 146 women, comparing a group of healthy controls with a cohort who had experienced partner violence more than six months earlier.

Alfred Hospital clinical neuropsychologist and study author Dr Jennifer Makovec Knight said some people may not realise that strangulation — including consensual strangulation — can cause different kinds of brain injuries.

There has been a growing focus on the safe treatment of brain injuries, particularly in sports, given increasing evidence that even mild concussions, and especially repeated ones, can have long-term impacts.

A 2018 study by Brain Injury Australia found 40 per cent of family violence survivors who attended Victorian hospitals over a 10-year period had sustained a brain injury.

But that data only related to those who attended hospital.

The Monash-led study found women who suffered more than six suspected brain injuries (concussions and/or strangulations) at the hands of a partner had worse scores on memory and learning tests.

That was even after controlling for factors like age, mental health conditions and substance use.

It also found the rates of strangulation were “alarmingly high” — more than 80 per cent of the cohort with repeated brain injuries (more than six) had experienced both head hits and strangulation.

She said that was an important finding — particularly when, as the researchers acknowledge, cognitive changes may be weaponised by perpetrators to claim a survivor of violence is not capable of decision-making or parenting, for example.

Dr Makovic Knight said her hope was that this study could prompt tailored screening and treatment of concussion and strangulation-linked brain injuries for women who experience intimate partner violence.

Source: Repeated brain injuries linked to memory changes in intimate partner violence survivors, study finds – ABC News

Call for Special General Meeting as Mardi Gras Rejects Centring Trans Rights | Sydney Criminal Lawyers

At the 25 November 2025 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (SGLMG) annual general meeting, Pride in Protest moved three successful resolutions, including recommending that transgender rights be a central focus of the 2026 event. However, following a 50 day delay on confirming the status of these motions, the Mardi Gras Board has now determined to reject them.

Mardi Gras cochairs Kathy Pavlich and Mits Delisle broke the news to the SGLMG membership via a 20 January 2026 email, in which they explained that the decision reflected the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission governance framework the organisation operates under, along with ensuring that “Mardi Gras’ values, strategic priorities, and long-term sustainability” are upheld.

“I moved the motions on trans rights and antidiscrimination reform, and they are the most popularly supported motions in AGM history,” Pride in Protest spokesperson Evan Gray made clear in a 21 January statement.

Gray further announced on Tuesday that Pride in Protest is calling for an extraordinary general meeting of the Mardi Gras board and membership to further debate the outcome of the motions, as the majority of members sought to progress them.

The SGLMG board cochairs suggested in their Tuesday email that progressing the three resolutions was not in keeping with its “legal and fiduciary duties”, and nor its “legal, financial, operational, reputational and safety considerations”.

Source: Call for Special General Meeting as Mardi Gras Rejects Centring Trans Rights

Dianna Kenny “inTRANSigence” book trailer – YouTube

Revealed: Australia’s secret Anti-Protest Force for US Department of War – Michael West

Most people won’t be aware that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) has established a new command.

Headed by Commissioner Krissy Barrett, our national police force is made up of five regional commands (Northern, Eastern, Central, Southern and Western) and a number of functional commanders dealing variously with crime, fraud and corruption, cyber operations, counter-terrorism and special investigations, and protective security. No surprises there – the AFP structure is well established and pretty much what you would expect.

But now there’s a new AFP “AUKUS Command”, established with little fanfare and headed by AFP Assistant Commissioner Sandra Booth.

AUKUS Command’s roles are centred on security for the AUKUS nuclear submarine project and interestingly include ‘Public Order Management’, but its mandate is much broader than protecting nuclear submarines.

The AFP’s FOI response came in late and was covered with large swaths of black ink redacting most of the information, but enough has been revealed to show that the Government is boosting its capability to deal with anticipated political protest activities against a much expanded US military and intelligence presence in Australia.

Nuclear protestors not tolerated

Although anti-nuclear protests focused on visiting US Navy nuclear powered submarines have so far been small in scale, the AFP has likely been alerted to the possibilities of larger scale water-borne protest by the “Rising Tide” environmental actions at Australia’s largest coal export terminal at Newcastle.

Protest groups involved in those activities have already been subject to close scrutiny by the AFP and New South Wales Police.

But wait, there’s more, much more

But it turns out that protecting nuclear submarines is only part of the AUKUS Command’s responsibilities.

Major upgrades are taking place at a number of other Australian Defence Force facilities to accommodate an expanded US military presence in Northern and Western Australia.

Significant works have also been underway at Australian intelligence facilities, including a major perimeter security upgrade and installation of new satellite dishes at the ASD’s Shoal Bay Receiving Station, nineteen kilometres north-east of Darwin.

As the US defence and intelligence footprint expands, it’s likely that the AUKUS Command’s security and “public order management” responsibilities will be quite wide-ranging.

Source: Revealed: Australia’s secret Anti-Protest Force for US Department of War – Michael West

‘Novel’ case draws reprimand – Proctor

A principal has been fined, publicly reprimanded and barred from obtaining a practising certificate for 12 months for professional misconduct in a disciplinary first in Queensland.

The principal and legal practitioner director was charged with failing to exercise ‘appropriate forensic judgment called for’ by filing an affidavit on behalf of a client that included explicit and sensitive material.

The practitioner was acting for the respondent to an application for a protection order under the Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 2012 (Qld). In preparing an affidavit on behalf of his client he attached photographs depicting the applicant naked.

In its decision the Tribunal accepted that the placing of the material before the court was a legitimate forensic purpose under Rule 17.1 of the Australian Solicitors Conduct Rules, however, the method adopted for the provision of the evidence was at issue.

“All that was required was to inform the court that there would be a necessity to tender sensitive material and to seek directions how best to do so,” the Tribunal said in its decision.

“The filing of the affidavit, even in the relatively closed environment of the court involved in such applications, necessarily required publication to the applicant seeking a protection order, and others required by their duties to deal with the affidavit. Given the principal objects of the DFVP Act include the safety, protection and well-being of those who fear or experience domestic violence and to minimise disruption to their lives the very act of filing the explicit images within the affidavit potentially involved an act of domestic violence itself. Hence the need for forensic judgment in this difficult area.”¹

Source: ‘Novel’ case draws reprimand – Proctor

Major Step Forward on Gun Safety After Bondi Tragedy – Gun Control Australia

20 January 2026

Gun Control Australia welcomes the passage of the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Firearms and Customs Laws) Act 2026 and commends the Albanese Government, with Greens support, for acting decisively to strengthen Australia’s gun laws in the wake of the Bondi mass shooting.

This legislation represents a significant step forward in protecting our communities. It establishes a national firearms buyback scheme – an approach with a proven record of reducing the number of high-risk firearms in circulation and preventing future tragedies.

The reforms also strengthen firearms background checking by enabling assessments to draw on defined national intelligence inputs, closing critical gaps that have existed across jurisdictions. In addition, the legislation strengthens oversight of firearm and related component imports and exports at Australia’s borders.

We particularly welcome the Government’s commitment to establishing a National Firearms Safety Council, as proposed by Greens Senators Larissa Waters and David Shoebridge. The Council will provide independent, evidence-based oversight to ensure firearm laws and regulations consistently prioritise public safety across Australia.

These reforms align with long-standing community expectations, reinforced yet again by the horror of the Bondi gun massacre. Australia is home to more than four million privately owned firearms, many of them stored insecurely in suburban homes. Around 2,000 guns are reported lost or stolen each year, roughly one every four hours.

By reducing the number of firearms in the community and strengthening national safeguards, this legislation will help make Australia safer. While there is more work to do, today marks an important and historic step toward preventing gun violence and protecting lives.

Source: Major Step Forward on Gun Safety After Bondi Tragedy – Gun Control Australia

“It doesn’t touch me”, Rachel Ward is unbothered by online trolls – The Australian Women’s Weekly

Rachel Ward speaks out after receiving an on-slaught of online hate simply for ageing and choosing to do so naturally.

It was days before Christmas – mid-summer – and cicadas trilled in the background as actor, director and beef cattle farmer Rachel Ward posted a video to her Instagram feed thanking friends and neighbours for their support throughout the year.

No one – least of all Rachel – imagined this chatty, generous and otherwise innocuous post would attract a band of ill-mannered (and inarticulate) trolls.

‘OMG!! What the hell happened to her. Wow!! She has aged really bad.’ ‘I wish I never saw her like this!’ ‘She looks ravaged.’ And worse.

Her daughter, Matilda Brown, also an actor and food producer (at The Good Farm Shop), was incensed. She jumped to her mum’s defence and reposted the comments, calling out the idiocy of criticising a 68-year-old woman for, essentially, looking 68. “Warning!! Naturally aging woman. Proceed with caution,” she wrote and posted a series of exquisite photographs of Rachel with her grandkids, and at work on the farm.

The resulting pile-on of love is what Rachel has focused on, she says, sitting in her kitchen, enjoying a morning cuppa as she chats with The Weekly.

“Why are we giving ourselves these expectations to maintain youth, and what is perceived as attractive? It’s so great to not weigh into that anymore. Maybe if I was 40, I would mind the comments, but now I’ve so left any kind of attachment to youth and beauty behind … It doesn’t touch me because it’s not important anymore.”

Rachel let her hair colour grow out last year, against Bryan’s advice. It was a conscious decision.

“I’d been wanting to do it for a while,” she explains. “It was Bryan who was very resistant. I was just, ‘Well, you’re grey, why does it matter?’ And he was like, ‘You don’t need to go grey yet.’

“I had no idea it was going to be this white, but I like it, and my daughter cut it, so it’s her haircut. My kids like it, the grandkids don’t have a problem. and even Bryan seems to have come around to it, so there we go.”

Source: “It doesn’t touch me”, Rachel Ward is unbothered by online trolls – The Australian Women’s Weekly

Plan to pay Australian surrogates for the toll of pregnancy | SMH

Surrogates would receive monthly payments of up to $2000 for the “pain and discomfort of pregnancy” under a proposed overhaul of Australia’s surrogacy laws.

Labelling the current system “confusing, restrictive and not fit for purpose”, the Australian Law Reform Commission has also recommended consistent surrogacy laws across the country and a new national regulator.

The recommendations come as a record number of Australians go overseas for surrogacy arrangements due to a shortage of domestic surrogates.

Last financial year, 369 children born through surrogacy arrangements became Australian citizens, up from 218 in 2021. It has been reported that in 2020, about 76 children were born through domestic surrogacy.

In a bid to boost the number of domestic surrogates, the commission recommended reimbursing Australian surrogates for more of the real costs and losses of surrogacy to ensure they are not out of pocket.

Surrogacy Australia operations manager Anna McKie said the new hardship payments were not about profit, but that they acknowledged the profound “wear and tear” on a woman’s body and mind during and after pregnancy.

One of the most exciting proposals, McKie said, was the introduction of surrogacy support organisations that could oversee financial arrangements between surrogates and intended parents and co-ordinate payments in a trust account.

[Ed: Very exciting development for those intent on the unconscionable exploitation of women and children. This demonstrates that submissions by many feminist groups, asking for a complete ban on all surrogacy, fell on deaf ears at the ALRC. Disturbingly this reporting by the SMH fails to provide any representation of the objections to these recommendations which effectively introduce commercial surrogacy by stealth, indicates significant capture of this media by vested interests.]

Source: Plan to pay Australian surrogates for the toll of pregnancy

Australia’s dangerous new hate speech bill | Andrew Doyle

In the wake of the Bondi Beach terror attack, the government has responded in the predictable way.

Restrictions on freedom of speech are often perceived as the magical solution to society’s ills.

The Australian government is now following the same predictable pattern. It has published a draft of its new ‘Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill’ as a response to the antisemitic terror attack at Bondi Beach last month.

[T]he threats to liberty in the new Bill are severe, and all law-abiding Australian citizens should be very concerned. At the centre of the Bill is a new ‘racial vilification offence’ inserted into the Criminal Code. This will mean that a person commits an offence if they engage in public conduct ‘with the intention of promoting or inciting hatred of another person or a group of persons’.

As with all such laws, ‘hatred’ is not satisfactorily defined, leaving it wide open to exploitation.

Laws against inciting violence are justifiable, because violence impinges directly on the human rights of others. But laws against inciting negative human emotions veer directly into the territory of the Thought Police.

This Bill makes clear that nobody actually needs to be harmed for someone to have committed a crime.

Laws against ‘hate speech’ have no place on the statute books. They are an affront to our basic human rights, and a sure sign that a government has turned authoritarian. They have the effect of chilling mainstream views as well as controversial ones, depending on who is in power at any given time and where the Overton Window happens to be situated. The vagueness of the language is particularly troubling in a country like Australia, where even to acknowledge that sex is binary and immutable is often characterised as ‘hatred’ by members of the political and media class.

The Australian government wants to jail people not for their actions, but for how their words might make other people feel. If this strikes you as harmless, you might want to brush up on your history.

Source: Australia’s dangerous new hate speech bill