We're dealing with the kinds of circumstances that would involve violence in the home, including violence against pets in the home, which we know is predictive of violence against people who live in the home.
We are dealing with sexual coercion. We're dealing with a range of different behaviours, but perhaps, if I could encapsulate them simply, these are behaviours that would cause a person to reasonably fear for their physical or psychological safety. This is not someone who has a difference of opinion. This is not somebody who asks where a person went for coffee that day out of interest in how their day was going. This is a pattern of behaviours that we know are predictive towards violence, often fatal violence, in a relationship. It's very serious, and we need to take action.
We have made the decision to delay the coming-into-force date to give time for the system to become ready to deal with these new challenges in response to very real feedback. We heard about the potential weaponization of coercive control against the perpetrator of an abusive relationship. By enumerating sets of behaviours that would reasonably cause a person to fear for their safety, I think we've hit the right mark, as long as we combine that with training at a systems level to ensure that the courts and law enforcement have the ability to move forward with this offence in the way it was intended.