Women are great at coercive control

Sometimes the producers keep you guessing, as in this Queensland government campaign, where Ben, a male "survivor" talks about how "they" persecute him by constantly monitoring his text messages and phonecalls. Sneaky way of avoiding explaining whether Ben's abuser is a "he" or "she".

But naturally, there's never, ever any mention of female perpetrators controlling men. Never any mention of men who spend their lives being coerced by vindictive partners. Men who don't dare leave the relationship because that would mean putting their children at risk by leaving them with a frightening mother.

Absolutely no chance of hearing their side of the story.

Unless of course, you come to the Restoring the Presumption of Innocence conference where you will hear from a bunch of Australian men who were victims of coercive control. These men were part of a cohort of nearly 1000 local men who took part in the large international survey on male victims of coercive control run by the University of Central Lancashire. Their experiences represent the truth that our governments are so determined to bury.

Take a look at the press release we released last week, promoting the conference. As you might imagine, most of our media wasn't interested. (It would be great if you could share it on your social media.)

But what media exposure we have achieved has resulted in fascinating people coming out of the woodwork, all keen to be involved, like former prosecutors, police officers, lawyers.

Funnily enough I heard from one woman who had discovered my work through the Long Bay Jail grapevine. Her partner is in prison as a result of a false sexual assault allegation, and was told by other prisoners about our campaigning.

Then there was the former social worker and child protection bureaucrat who is now writing blogs on Substack. We've managed to squeeze him into the conference program where he will wade into very deep waters indeed. He's pulling together the abundant evidence that shows that removing dad from the home increases the risk to children, particularly when the single mother pairs up with a new boyfriend. The social worker is writing under the pseudonym, Lori Lavers, since he knows all too well that even though everyone in child protection knows the vulnerability of children in single mum families, woe betide anyone who talks publicly about it. His stories from the coalface will be worth hearing.

But it has been chilling talking to potential speakers and realising how many would risk their careers if they told the truth about what is going on in our justice system. We won't be naming some of the brave speakers who are now joining us – including some who are household names.