Source : Perth Now news
Sarah Fardy was a victim of technology-facilitated domestic violence, a type of coercive control method experts say can often escalate to physical abuse.
During her six-week relationship with her partner Jay Hart, Ms Fardy said she had prior knowledge of Mr Hart’s troubles and wanted to be empathetic and supportive.
“I didn’t realise at the time that giving him access would end with him monitoring every single thing I did,” Ms Fardy said.
She said Mr Hart would threaten self-harm every time she asked him to leave and was aggressive, violent and controlling.
He coercively controlled her to the point where he told her she wasn’t allowed to talk to specific people or even order her own drinks from the bar.
After Mr Hart “pulled a knife on himself” and locked himself in her spare room, Ms Fardy told him to leave the house and sought counsel from her sister who works in the corrections space.
She was also told Mr Hart had several protection orders against him already.
“The police knew how dangerous he was. I will be forever grateful to that police officer for what she did and how she stepped in and acted,” Ms Fardy said.
Mr Hart – a British footballer who was in Australia on a student visa – was later deported after Ms Fardy and another victim, Cara Greedy, launched a petition and rallied support, leading to Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke cancelling Mr Hart’s visa.
Family violence experts and survivors say a royal commission into the deaths of women and children in Australia from domestic violence may not be the solution to stop the heinous crime.
So far in 2026, 29 women and 11 children have been killed as a result of “murder, manslaughter or neglect” according to the RED HEART Movement.
Anthony Albanese was heavily criticised after an appearance on radio where he dismissed calls for a royal commission into the deaths of women in Australia.
“What’s your government doing to make serious change in this country so that we eradicate this violence against women?” family violence survivor and advocate Christie Hayes asked the Prime Minister on HIT 100.9 Hobart’s breakfast radio show last week.
“There’s calls for a royal commission about everything,” Mr Albanese replied before Ms Hayes argued the “deaths of women are pretty paramount”.
“Yeah, they are but you’ve got to work out what does a royal commission do besides fund lawyers,” Mr Albanese said.
“What we need here is solutions that we know. We know what they are, we know what’s required here.”
Many agree with the calls for a royal commission, but others suggest the government already knows what it needs to do, but it’s a matter of properly implementing it.
Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Hub research fellow Jess Woolley said technology-facilitated family and domestic violence gave perpetrators access to their victims “anywhere at any time”.
“Technology-facilitated family and domestic violence is strongly connected to different forms of violence including physical abuse,” Dr Woolley said.
She added there was “significant risk” of that behaviour escalating to online and in-person stalking, increasing the risk of murder.
She also added that police were “crucial” in protecting victim-survivors, much like in the case of Ms Fardy.
Experts and advocates are split on the idea of a royal commission but agree change needs to be made.
Ms Fardy said developing a national framework is “really complicated”, saying the recent calls for a royal commission and the subsequent dismissal provides another opportunity to “continue the conversation”.
“The government has said that they already know what is required. I think it’s not the end, it’s the start really. There’s a few things that would need to happen though,” she said.
She said state-conducted royal commissions could provide the basis for a broader national framework.
The Andrews government held a royal commission into family violence in 2015 that Dr Woolley said could be used as inspiration for something similar nationwide.
“We had a royal commission in Victoria where they made 227 recommendations and they adopted all of those recommendations as of 2023,” she said.
“It provides an opportunity to highlight the systemic failures we have. It can map out the ways we can prevent domestic and family violence, improve support and hold perpetrators to account … figuring out the best ways to make everything work together holistically.”
The Malinauskas government launched its own royal commission in South Australia at the end of 2023, with commissioner Natasha Stott Despoja saying the support system in the state at the time was “fragmented … and siloed”.
“Some of the systems we have can be quite siloed,” Dr Woolley agreed.
“Looking at how health systems and domestic and family violence/policing systems don’t necessarily connect and talk to each other. That can be a real challenge and also require the victim to tell the story multiple times.
“If we have a more holistic understanding of how these systems work and how they co-operate and how could they better co-operate, a royal commission could be relatively beneficial among other things.”
