Skip Ribbon Commands
Skip to main content
MENU
Skip Navigation LinksHome Legislative Assembly

<b>LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY</b> - Signing ePetition

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY - Signing ePetition - Reform the Mental Health Act to Protect and Rehabilitate Victims of Abuse

To sign the ePetition, confirm you are a resident of New South Wales and enter your title, first name and last name. Once you click ‘submit’ you will have signed the ePetition and will be re-directed to the Legislative Assembly’s ‘ePetitions open for signature’ page

Reform the Mental Health Act to Protect and Rehabilitate Victims of Abuse

To the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly, The petition of the undersigned residents of New South Wales draws to the attention of the House the urgent need to reform the NSW Mental Health Act 2007 to better protect and rehabilitate victims of domestic violence, coercive control, and psychological abuse. Survivors of abuse are increasingly being misidentified as mentally unwell, particularly when reporting complex or invisible forms of harm such as cyberstalking, gaslighting, and coercive control. In some cases, perpetrators use the Mental Health Act as a tool to discredit, intimidate, and silence their victims—resulting in trauma, stigma, and in some instances, wrongful detention. There is currently no mandatory domestic violence screening process embedded within the Act to assess the context of a person’s distress, nor is there a safeguard against false or malicious mental health reports made in abuse contexts. Police and authorised mental health professionals lack consistent training in trauma-informed assessment practices, leaving survivors vulnerable to misjudgement. We therefore ask the Legislative Assembly to call on the Government to: • Amend the NSW Mental Health Act to include specific protections for victim-survivors of abuse. • Mandate domestic violence and trauma screening prior to mental health interventions. • Penalise false referrals made with abusive intent. • Provide training to frontline responders to identify coercive control and abuse-related trauma. • Provide appropriate rehabilitation and care to survivors of abuse. The undersigned petitioners request urgent legislative reform to ensure the Mental Health Act supports, rather than silences, those seeking help.

Name
Title
First name*
Family name *
Contact
Email*


The Parliament of New South Wales acknowledges and respects the traditional lands of all Aboriginal people, and pays respects to all Elders past and present. We acknowledge the Gadigal people as the traditional custodians of the land on which the Parliament of New South Wales stands.