What is — and isn’t — currently law

Covers menacing, harassing or offensive communications by phone, internet, social media or apps. Maximum penalty 5 years.

Source: Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions

Stalking includes following someone, watching their home or workplace, and monitoring or tracking their activities, communications or movements, with or without technology. Intimidation includes harassment and cyberbullying. It must be done intending to cause fear of physical or mental harm. Maximum penalty 5 years.

Source: Crimes (Domestic and Personal Violence) Act 2007 (NSW)

Covers conduct directed at a person on more than one occasion (or once, if protracted), such as following, watching, contacting or monitoring them, or intimidating, harassing or threatening them. The maximum penalty is 5 years, or 7 years where there is a domestic relationship or violence is used or threatened.

Source: Queensland Criminal Code

A course of conduct such as following someone, contacting them by phone, text, email or online, publishing material about them, tracking their internet or email use, loitering near their home, or using abusive words or acts towards them. Maximum penalty 10 years.

Source: Victorian Law Reform Commission

Pursuing someone with intent to intimidate them, for example by repeatedly contacting or following them, or watching where they live or work. Maximum penalty 3 years, or 8 years if aggravated.

Source: Criminal Code (WA)

Conduct on at least 2 occasions, such as following someone, sending offensive material, communicating in a way that causes fear, or monitoring, tracking or surveilling their movements, activities or associations. Maximum penalty 3 years, or 5 years if aggravated.

Source: Law Handbook (Legal Services Commission of SA)

A course of conduct intended to cause harm, humiliation or fear. It includes following someone, keeping them under surveillance, making threats, contacting them by any means, or using the internet in a way that could reasonably make them fearful. It is a crime.

Source: Criminal Code (Tas)

Maximum penalty 2 years, or more where a court order is breached, a weapon is involved, or the offence is aggravated.

Source: Crimes Act 1900 (ACT)

Repeated conduct such as following someone, contacting them by phone or messages, loitering near their home or keeping them under surveillance. Maximum penalty 2 years, or 5 years where a court order is breached or a weapon is involved.

Source: Criminal Code (NT)

Maximum penalty 10 years for a threat to kill, and 7 years for a threat to cause serious harm.

Source: Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions

Sending or delivering a written or electronic threat to kill or harm someone. Liable to imprisonment for 10 years.

Source: Crimes Act 1900 (NSW)

For people who are not related and not in a domestic relationship, such as a group leader or another member. It can protect you from violence, threats, harassment, intimidation or stalking. Breaching an order is a crime, with a maximum of 2 years.

Source: NSW Department of Communities and Justice

Threatening to cause someone detriment in order to stop a person doing something they are lawfully entitled to do, or to force them to do something they are entitled to refuse. The maximum penalty is 5 years, and higher in some circumstances.

Source: Queensland Criminal Code

If someone has threatened to harm you, your property or someone in your care and you fear for your safety, you can apply to a court for this order. It is useful where the person is not a partner or family member, for example a group leader. If the person is a partner or family member, a domestic violence order is usually the right path instead.

Source: Queensland Courts

Maximum penalty 10 years for a threat to kill, and 5 years for a threat to inflict serious injury.

Source: Victorian Law Reform Commission

Protects you from someone who is not a family member, such as a group leader or another member, where they have assaulted, harassed, seriously threatened or stalked you, or damaged or interfered with your property.

Source: Victoria Legal Aid

Maximum penalty 7 years for a threat to kill, and 3 years for other threats, with higher penalties if aggravated.

Source: Criminal Code (WA)

For protection from someone who is not a family member, where there is a risk of assault, kidnapping, deprivation of liberty, threats or stalking.

Source: Legal Aid WA

Maximum penalty 10 years for a threat to kill or endanger life, and 5 years for a threat to cause harm, with higher penalties if aggravated.

Source: Law Handbook (Legal Services Commission of SA)

South Australia’s intervention orders cover both domestic and non-domestic abuse, so they may be available against a group leader or member. See the last situation below for what counts as abuse.

Source: Law Handbook (Legal Services Commission of SA)

A court can restrain a person who has caused or threatened personal injury or property damage, behaved provocatively or offensively, or stalked you. It does not require a family relationship.

Source: Justices Act 1959 (Tas)

Maximum penalty 10 years for a threat to kill, and 5 years for a threat to inflict grievous bodily harm, with higher penalties if aggravated.

Source: Crimes Act 1900 (ACT)

For people affected by personal violence from someone who is not a family member.

Source: ACT Magistrates Court

Maximum penalty 7 years.

Source: Criminal Code (NT)

For people outside a domestic relationship with you. Examples include neighbours, work colleagues, and personal and professional associations.

Source: Local Court of the Northern Territory

Liable to imprisonment for 2 years.

Source: Crimes Act 1900 (NSW)

Intentionally choking, suffocating or strangling someone without their consent. A stand-alone offence, whether or not the person was injured. Maximum penalty 5 years.

Source: Crimes Act 1900 (NSW)

Liable to imprisonment for 3 years, or more in some circumstances.

Source: Queensland Criminal Code

A stand-alone crime with a maximum penalty of 7 years. Please seek support even if there were no visible injuries.

Source: Queensland Criminal Code

Intentionally choking, strangling or suffocating someone without lawful excuse. Maximum penalty 5 years.

Source: Crimes Act 1958 (Vic), Victorian Bar copy as at 6 August 2025

Unlawfully impeding someone’s normal breathing or blood circulation. Maximum penalty 5 years, or 7 years if aggravated.

Source: Criminal Code (WA)

Applies to people who are or were in a relationship, which includes family members and members of a culturally recognised family group. No harm needs to be intended or caused. Maximum penalty 7 years, or 10 years if the person was made unconscious.

Source: Law Handbook (Legal Services Commission of SA)

A crime in itself, covering choking and suffocation too, even without visible injury. Maximum sentence 21 years.

Source: Department of Justice Tasmania

Maximum penalty 5 years (7 if aggravated), or 10 years if the person was made unconscious.

Source: Crimes Act 1900 (ACT)

Maximum penalty 5 years.

Source: Criminal Code (NT)

Where coercion, threats or deception mean a person who provides labour or services is not free to stop working or leave. Maximum penalty 15 years, or 20 years if aggravated.

Source: Judicial Commission of NSW (Equality before the Law Bench Book)

Holding someone in slavery or servitude in New South Wales, or requiring a child to perform forced labour. Maximum penalty 25 years.

Source: Crimes Act 1900 (NSW)

Unlawfully confining or detaining someone against their will, or otherwise depriving them of their personal liberty. Liable to imprisonment for 3 years.

Source: Queensland Criminal Code

Victoria’s definition of family violence includes unlawfully depriving a family member of their liberty, or threatening to. See the last situation below for who counts as family.

Source: Victorian Government (MARAM practice guide)

Maximum penalty 10 years, or 14 years if aggravated.

Source: Criminal Code (WA)

Maximum penalty 7 years.

Source: Criminal Code (NT)

Forced labour carries a maximum of 9 years (12 if aggravated). Deceiving someone about the work, including whether they are free to leave, carries 7 years (9 if aggravated). Debt bondage carries 4 years (7 if aggravated). Under the Criminal Code, “coercion” includes psychological oppression, abuse of power and taking advantage of a person’s vulnerability, not only physical force. Some of these offences can apply even if the conduct happened overseas.

Source: Attorney-General’s Department

Maximum penalty 25 years. The Commonwealth forced-labour offences above also apply in New South Wales.

Source: Crimes Act 1900 (NSW)

A marriage is forced where a person does not freely and fully consent because their will was overborne, or they lacked capacity. Maximum penalty 7 years, or 9 years if the person is under 18 or in other aggravated situations.

Source: Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions

Coercing, deceiving or threatening a person or child to enter a forced marriage counts as intimidation. That means it can support an apprehended violence order, alongside the Commonwealth offence.

Source: Crimes (Domestic and Personal Violence) Act 2007 (NSW)

Covers sending, posting or making available sexual material of an adult by phone or online without their consent, including material that has been altered or generated so that it appears to depict them. Maximum penalty 6 years.

Source: Australian Taxation Office legal database (Criminal Code text)

Maximum penalty 3 years for each offence.

Source: Crimes Act 1900 (NSW)

Distributing an intimate image of someone without consent, in a way that would cause distress. Maximum penalty 3 years.

Source: Queensland Criminal Code

Liable to 3 years imprisonment for each offence.

Source: Crimes Act 1958 (Vic), Victorian Bar copy as at 6 August 2025

Maximum penalty 3 years.

Source: Criminal Code (WA)

Maximum penalty 3 years, or 4 years if aggravated, for each offence. A threat can be explicit or implied.

Source: Crimes Act 1900 (ACT)

Maximum penalty 3 years for each offence.

Source: Criminal Code (NT)

In parenting and property cases, family violence includes behaviour that coerces or controls a family member. Examples include economic or financial abuse, repeated derogatory taunts, and preventing someone from keeping connections with their family, friends or culture.

Source: Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia

New South Wales’ coercive control offence. It covers current or former intimate partners only. Maximum penalty 7 years.

Source: Crimes Act 1900 (NSW)

Domestic abuse expressly includes behaviour that coerces or controls (s 6A). A “domestic relationship” is broader than partners and relatives. It includes people who live or have lived in the same household, or as long-term residents of the same residential facility (s 5). This may matter if you lived communally. Breaching an order carries up to 2 years, or up to 5 years for repeated breaches.

Source: Crimes (Domestic and Personal Violence) Act 2007 (NSW)

A stand-alone offence for adults in a domestic relationship who engage in a course of domestic violence intended to coerce or control, where that is reasonably likely to cause harm. Maximum penalty 14 years.

Source: Queensland Criminal Code

Domestic violence includes emotional or psychological abuse (s 11) and economic abuse (s 12). Orders cover intimate partner, family and informal care relationships (s 13). Breaching an order is a crime, with a maximum of 3 years, or 5 years for a repeat offence within 5 years.

Source: Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 2012 (Qld)

Family violence includes emotional, psychological and economic abuse, and coercive behaviour or behaviour that controls or dominates. “Family member” can include someone you regard as being like family, depending on factors such as living together, emotional ties, financial or other dependence, and whether your community sees the relationship as family-like. Breaching an order carries up to 2 years.

Source: Family Violence Protection Act 2008 (Vic) s 8

Parliament passed a coercive control offence for intimate partners in September 2026 (new s 34AR of the Crimes Act 1958). It starts by 1 March 2028 at the latest. Until then, the orders and offences listed here still apply.

Source: Parliament of Victoria

Anyone aged 16 or over can apply for an order against a family member. Police can also apply.

Source: Legal Aid WA

Abuse includes emotional or psychological harm and “an unreasonable and non-consensual denial of financial, social or personal autonomy”, such as withholding money, stopping someone working, or exercising unreasonable control and domination over their daily life. Orders cover domestic and non-domestic abuse.

Source: Law Handbook (Legal Services Commission of SA)

Stand-alone offences for partner relationships, plus family violence orders. A time limit applies to complaints, so seek advice early.

Source: Family Violence Act 2004 (Tas)

Family violence includes emotional or psychological abuse, economic abuse, and coercion or other controlling behaviour towards a family member.

Source: Family Violence Act 2016 (ACT)

Domestic violence includes intimidation, financial abuse, and forced isolation from work, family, friends, culture or religion. A domestic relationship includes people who usually live, or have lived, together, such as housemates. This may matter if you lived communally.

Source: NT Law Handbook

An adult who knows or believes, or reasonably ought to know, that a child abuse offence has been committed must report information that might help police, unless they have a reasonable excuse. Maximum penalty 2 or 5 years, depending on the abuse offence.

Source: Crimes Act 1900 (NSW)

Since 5 July 2021, all adults in Queensland must tell police if they believe an adult has committed a sexual offence against a child, unless an exception applies. Failing to report carries a maximum penalty of 3 years. In an emergency, call 000.

Source: Queensland Government

Any adult who forms a reasonable belief that another adult has sexually offended against a child under 16 in Victoria must tell police, unless an exception applies. Maximum penalty 3 years.

Source: Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety

Applies to certain roles, not all adults. These include doctors, nurses, midwives, teachers, police, psychologists, school counsellors, early childhood and out-of-home care workers, and ministers of religion. They must report a reasonable belief of child sexual abuse to the Department of Communities.

Source: WA Government

Ministers of religion have been mandatory reporters since 1 November 2022. They are not excused because the information came from a religious confession. Failing to make a mandatory report carries a maximum penalty of $6,000.

Source: WA Government information sheet

Applies to certain roles, not all adults. These include health workers, teachers, police, social workers, ministers of religion, and employees or volunteers of an organisation formed for religious or spiritual purposes. They must notify the Department for Child Protection if, through their work, they suspect on reasonable grounds that a child is or may be at risk. Maximum penalty $10,000. Anyone can make a report to the Child Abuse Report Line on 131 478.

Source: Law Handbook (Legal Services Commission of SA)

Since 1 June 2022, adults who work or volunteer for an institution that provides services to children, expressly including religious institutions and people working as a minister of religion, can commit an offence if they fail to report suspected child sexual abuse by another person in the institution to police, or fail to protect a child from it. These offences carry a penalty of imprisonment.

Source: Law Handbook (Legal Services Commission of SA)

A person who reasonably believes an abuse offence has been committed against a child must tell police as soon as practicable, unless they have a reasonable excuse or an exception applies.

Source: Criminal Code (Tas)

Since 1 September 2019, adults who reasonably believe a sexual offence has been committed against a child must report it to police. Failing to report is an offence.

Source: ACT Government

Every person in the Northern Territory must report to Territory Families or police if they reasonably believe a child is being, or is likely to be, harmed or exploited. Not reporting is an offence.

Source: NT Territory Families