CultNEWS101 Articles: 11/14/2025

[Patrick Ryan]

Parliament of Victoria, Legal

International Cult Awareness Day: November 18th

#CultAwarenessDay #CultAwareness #CoerciveControl #SupportSurvivors https://cultawarenessday.com/

Parliament of Victoria: Understanding the coercive practices of high-control groups

"Some arrive searching for community, drawn by the promise of belonging and purpose. Others are born into them, with family ties leaving no room for choice. Only later do many realise the cost: freedom surrendered, families broken and futures quietly stolen.

These are the stories the Legislative Assembly’s Legal and Social Issues Committee is hearing in its inquiry into the recruitment methods and impacts of cults and organised fringe groups.

The focus is not on the beliefs of these groups but on behaviour – the coercive and manipulative practices that recruit, control and harm.

What makes this inquiry unique is the way it has chosen to listen.

Alongside public hearings and submissions, the Committee offered a confidential online questionnaire. The response was overwhelming: 317 people spoke, many for the first time. Anonymity gave survivors courage.

‘For many people who’ve had experiences in cults or other high-control groups, this might be their first opportunity to share what’s happened to them and their family members,’ said Committee Chair and Member for Lara, Ella George."

The Catholic Weekly: Fears Victorian inquiry into cult recruitment methods will impede on religious freedom

"Freedom for Faith executive director Mike Southon has told a Victorian parliamentary inquiry investigating the recruitment methods and impacts of cults and fringe groups that while he doesn’t believe the inquiry was created to target faith communities there exists a “palpable fear” among both mainstream and minority faith groups.  

In an interview with The Catholic Weekly, he also called out recent media coverage of the inquiry and of religion in Australia when discussing the problems surrounding the definition of a cult.  

“There was an article earlier this year which basically said that religion is coercive, that just a simple belief that I need to follow Jesus for my eternal salvation is fundamentally coercive,” he said.  

“This is the danger of defining a cult – if you say a cult needs high commitment and expects people to give money to it and expects people to change how they live, and ask them not to affiliate with certain people, well that’s quite a lot of churches and religions, and that puts mainstream and minority faith groups at risk.”  

The Victorian government announced the inquiry in April as a response to “recent events,” in the state which had raised concerns about the methodology employed by religious and non-religious groups to recruit members.    

In a guidance note released at the announcement, the Victorian government claimed these groups “use techniques that can harm individuals emotionally, financially or even physically.”    

Southon provided testimony to the inquiry on 21 October, in one of a series of public hearings.  

He warned of the dangers which can emerge from providing definitions and criteria for coercive control which could affect the lifestyles of those faithful to mainstream and minority religions.  

“There is a lot of risk, particularly in legal definitions and specific definitions, of scope creep,” he said.  

“We have seen this in other forms of legislation which have sought to protect a specific harm, but in defining that harm they have had to draw the circle a little bit bigger and they start capturing other forms of behaviour.”  

Southon also emphasised the need for the Victorian government to investigate already illegal behaviour occurring within both mainstream and minority fringe groups and warned against expanding what are reasonably considered methods of coercion to behaviours which represent one’s devotion to their faith."

ABC Australia: Parliamentary inquiry probes experiences of children in high-control religious groups

A Victorian parliament probe into the impacts of cults and organised fringe groups has heard lived experience testimony from two women who grew up in high-control religious groups.

Their evidence has added to calls for a greater focus on the safety of children in religious groups.

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