The Cult Dossier · No. 151 · The Opposition / Anti-Cult
Coercive Control Law and the Regulation of High-Control Groups
Serious Crime Act 2015 s.76; the Victorian cults inquiry
2015 – present · England and Wales; Victoria, Australia
XIV. THE OPPOSITION — WHAT WAS BUILT TO FIGHT THEM
NOT A GROUP. This entry tracks the law itself — the attempt, still unfinished, to write a statute that reaches what happens inside these organisations.
Who led it
No leader. The relevant instruments are the SERIOUS CRIME ACT 2015 (England and Wales), the DOMESTIC ABUSE ACT 2021, and the Parliament of Victoria’s INQUIRY INTO THE RECRUITMENT METHODS AND IMPACTS OF CULTS AND ORGANISED FRINGE GROUPS, chaired by ELLA GEORGE.
What it worshipped and taught
The premise is the opposite of the one that failed in FISHMAN (see 150). It does not ask what a person believes, or whether their belief was implanted. IT ASKS WHAT WAS DONE TO THEM — a repeated pattern of behaviour that isolates, humiliates, monitors, controls money, regulates movement, and makes a person afraid. Belief is left entirely alone, which is exactly why the offence survives contact with a court.
Who was in it
ELLA GEORGE, chair of the Victorian committee; CHRISTINE COUZENS, the Geelong MP who initiated the inquiry after former members of a secretive local Christian group came forward; THE FAMILY SURVIVAL TRUST, whose July 2022 report COERCIVE CONTROL IN CULTIC GROUPS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM set out the statutory gap.
How it ended, or where it stands
STILL UNRESOLVED, BUT NO LONGER SPECULATIVE. The offence exists and works — inside the home. In JULY 2026 a Victorian parliamentary committee recommended extending it to high-control groups; the government response is due by late January 2027, and no such statute exists anywhere yet.
The dead
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Of note
READ THIS ENTRY DIRECTLY AFTER 150, BECAUSE IT IS THE SECOND HALF OF THE SAME STORY.
The anti-cult movement lost in court in 1990 because it argued about MINDS — that belief could be implanted and had to be surgically removed — and no court would accept it. Coercive control law works because it argues about CONDUCT. It never asks whether a follower really believes; it asks whether they were isolated, monitored, financially controlled and made afraid. That is provable with bank records, phone logs and witnesses, and it is the same evidentiary ground on which NXIVM (100), OneTaste (101) and Word of Faith Fellowship (096) were actually won.
THE ABSURDITY AT THE CENTRE OF IT IS WORTH STATING PLAINLY. The identical pattern of behaviour is a crime when one man does it to one partner, and NOTHING AT ALL when one man does it to two hundred followers. The law reached the household and stopped at the compound gate.
WHY THIS ENTRY IS AMBER. THE COMMITTEE REPORTED ON 29 JULY 2026 AND RECOMMENDED THE OFFENCE. What is left is a government response by late January 2027, then the Law Reform Commission’s drafting, then a vote, with the report itself naming February 2029 as the target. If Victoria legislates, this becomes the first statute in the world aimed squarely at what this dossier documents — and every ‘there is no law against it’ in this file will need revisiting. UNTIL THEN THE GAP IS EXACTLY WHERE IT WAS, and this file will not report a recommendation as though it were a law.
The anti-cult movement lost in court in 1990 because it argued about MINDS — that belief could be implanted and had to be surgically removed — and no court would accept it. Coercive control law works because it argues about CONDUCT. It never asks whether a follower really believes; it asks whether they were isolated, monitored, financially controlled and made afraid. That is provable with bank records, phone logs and witnesses, and it is the same evidentiary ground on which NXIVM (100), OneTaste (101) and Word of Faith Fellowship (096) were actually won.
THE ABSURDITY AT THE CENTRE OF IT IS WORTH STATING PLAINLY. The identical pattern of behaviour is a crime when one man does it to one partner, and NOTHING AT ALL when one man does it to two hundred followers. The law reached the household and stopped at the compound gate.
WHY THIS ENTRY IS AMBER. THE COMMITTEE REPORTED ON 29 JULY 2026 AND RECOMMENDED THE OFFENCE. What is left is a government response by late January 2027, then the Law Reform Commission’s drafting, then a vote, with the report itself naming February 2029 as the target. If Victoria legislates, this becomes the first statute in the world aimed squarely at what this dossier documents — and every ‘there is no law against it’ in this file will need revisiting. UNTIL THEN THE GAP IS EXACTLY WHERE IT WAS, and this file will not report a recommendation as though it were a law.
Its timeline
- 2015 SERIOUS CRIME ACT 2015, SECTION 76 (Part 5) creates the offence of CONTROLLING OR COERCIVE BEHAVIOUR IN AN INTIMATE OR FAMILY RELATIONSHIP in England and Wales. For the first time a pattern of conduct — rather than any single assault — becomes a crime in itself. As enacted it requires the parties to be living together.
- 2021 and 2023 THE DOMESTIC ABUSE ACT 2021 removes the living-together requirement from s.76, so the offence reaches former partners and family members who do not live with the victim. The change comes into force on 5 APRIL 2023.
- 2015–present AND THIS IS THE HOLE. The offence applies only to those who are PERSONALLY CONNECTED — partners, ex-partners, family. IT DOES NOT COVER CULTS OR HIGH-CONTROL GROUPS. A man who isolates his wife from her family, controls her money and dictates her movements commits a criminal offence; A LEADER WHO DOES ALL OF THAT TO A HUNDRED FOLLOWERS COMMITS NONE. There is no equivalent punitive measure available.
- JULY 2022 THE FAMILY SURVIVAL TRUST publishes COERCIVE CONTROL IN CULTIC GROUPS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. Its finding is one sentence: perpetrators in intimate relationships can be held to account under s.76, while IN CULTS THERE ARE NO SIMILARLY AVAILABLE PUNITIVE MEASURES. It presses for s.76 to be extended to high-control groups, and survivors have campaigned on it since.
- 2024–2026 THE PARLIAMENT OF VICTORIA HOLDS THE FIRST INQUIRY OF ITS KIND IN AUSTRALIA — the Legal and Social Issues Committee’s INQUIRY INTO THE RECRUITMENT METHODS AND IMPACTS OF CULTS AND ORGANISED FRINGE GROUPS, initiated by CHRISTINE COUZENS after former members of a secretive Christian group in Geelong described severe punishments and extreme teachings. Public hearings run through 2025. THE COMMITTEE IS EXPLICIT THAT IT IS EXAMINING BEHAVIOUR, NOT BELIEF, and is looking at regulatory gaps including the use of TAX and charity regulation to prevent harm.
- 29 JULY 2026 THE COMMITTEE REPORTS, AND RECOMMENDS EXACTLY WHAT THIS ENTRY SAID WAS MISSING. COERCION AND HARM IN HIGH CONTROL GROUPS is tabled in the Legislative Assembly in two volumes — CROSSING THE LINE and IN THEIR WORDS — with 98 FINDINGS AND 39 RECOMMENDATIONS, drawn from 291 submissions, 317 questionnaire responses and eight days of hearings. THE CENTRAL RECOMMENDATION IS A CRIMINAL OFFENCE OF COERCIVE CONTROL IN A HIGH-CONTROL GROUP, with the VICTORIAN LAW REFORM COMMISSION to work out the options within two years and legislation in force BY FEBRUARY 2029.
- PENDING THE VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT HAS SIX MONTHS TO RESPOND, WHICH RUNS TO LATE JANUARY 2027. NOTHING IS LAW YET. A recommendation is not a statute, and this entry stays amber until one exists.