House Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs - Melbourne, VIC (part 1 of 2) — hearing of 18 June 2026: transcript & video · Polyfact

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House Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs - Melbourne, VIC (part 1 of 2)

17 June 2026

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Contents updated on 21 Oct 2026

The Committee opens the hearing, hears Victorian evidence on DFV‑related suicides, and explores data gaps, coronial misclassification and the case for a nationally consistent definition capturing DFV as a contributor to suicide. Discussion covers coercion to suicide within coercive control, indicators for risk tools, and the distinct needs and long‑term impacts on child and adolescent victim‑survivors.

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Hearing context, DFV–suicide research and national definitions

17:21

Opening and Victorian study on DFV‑related suicides

17:21

Committee opens inquiry hearing in Melbourne

17:21

Academic study — women’s suicide and family violence

19:20

Escalating risk, coercion to suicide and housing

23:44

Data access, coronial evidence and national definition

29:55

Committee introductions and data-access challenges

29:55

Coronial evidence, under‑reporting and UK comparisons

33:32

Suicide registers, DFV frameworks and sexual violence scope

37:09

Hawke — perpetrators, safety and coercive control laws

38:21

National definition and operationalising data use

45:37

Coercion to suicide, causation debates and child victim‑survivors

49:10

Coercion to suicide — frontline training needs

49:10

Definition design, causation vs contribution and recovery

55:54

Child and youth victim‑survivors and specialist services

01:00:46

Help‑seeking by boys and homicide‑suicide learnings

01:08:22

Perpetrator suicide, homicide‑suicide and postvention

01:12:09

Police, mental health powers and criminal law gaps

01:18:37

Police–mental health interface and technology‑facilitated coercion

01:18:37

Police response to suicide threats in DFV context

01:18:37

Health–police communication, custody hierarchy and Project Beacon

01:22:19

Safety planning, partial plans and tech‑facilitated coercion

01:27:06

System recommendations, resources and inter‑service models

01:32:14

Tech‑facilitated abuse, evidentiary hurdles and severity

01:37:43

Criminal law responses to DFV‑linked suicides

02:10:43

Criminal law limits on incitement to suicide

02:10:43

Definitions, criminal offences and causation hurdles

02:13:51

Need for purposive suicide‑linked DFV offence

02:22:27

Judicial culture, training and benchbook reform

02:35:51

Victim experience in coercive control prosecutions

02:42:35

Evidence‑gathering after suicide and trauma‑informed practice

02:48:40

Coronial investigations, DFV coding and data for policy

03:06:42

Coronial data systems, DFV coding and AI potential

03:06:42

Coroners’ discretion, investigations and the Suicide Register

03:06:42

Using coronial data in policy and rapid reviews

03:20:13

Limits of current coding and potential of AI

03:32:07

Misidentification and DFV victim–perpetrator overlap

03:37:44

Health workforce role in DFV and suicide prevention

03:42:14

Nursing workforce exposure, supports and practice gaps

03:42:14

Nursing and midwifery workforce — exposure and gaps

03:42:14

Training deficits, ED practice and cross‑sector inequity

03:50:42

Workplace leave, supports and stigma

03:59:40

Nurses as victims, under‑reporting and EAP mistrust

04:10:26

Screening practice, continuity of care and staff debriefing

04:18:01

Hospital DFV models, reproductive coercion and information sharing

04:34:38

Royal Women’s Hospital — SHRIV model and reproductive coercion

04:34:38

Coronial records, information sharing and DFV definitions

04:52:01

House Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs - Melbourne, VIC (part 1 of 2)

17 June 2026

House Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs Thu, 18 Jun 2026 Australian Parliament

17:21 - 18:37

Speaker 43

Declare open the public hearing of the standing committee on social policy and legal affairs inquiry into the relationship between domestic family and sexual violence and suicide. I'd like to acknowledge the traditional and original owners of this land, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and the Bunurong peoples, and pay respect to those who have passed before us and to acknowledge today's Victorian aboriginal people who are the custodians of this land. I extend this respect to all Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander peoples and their cultural and spiritual connections to Australia's lands and waters. This hearing will be broadcast and the transcript of proceedings will be published on the parliament's website. For those in person or listening online, please be advised that this hearing may contain evidence that could cause distress.

If anything you hear today upsets you or causes distress, please reach out to 1800, Lifeline, 13, Kids Helpline or other support services. There is also parliamentary workplace support services and employee assistance program for broadcasting Hansard, the committee secretariat, the committee and its members staff. I now welcome Doctor. Stephanie Vassal and Professor Kate Fitzgibbon to give evidence. For the Hansard record, would you please state your full names and the capacity in which you appear before the committee?

Sorry, it's not done.

18:38 - 18:44

Speaker 13

Okay, I'll take that back. I now welcome Professor Marie Segrave and Professor Kate Fitzgibbon. You shouldn't read my papers so closely.

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