With Courage, Beyond Violence: A New Vision for South Australia
A Transformative Moment for South Australia
In August 2025, the Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence released its landmark report, With Courage: South Australia’s Vision Beyond Violence. The report delivers 136 recommendations to transform how the state prevents, responds to, and heals from gender-based violence. At The Untangle Project, we welcome this report as a milestone. It is a significant step forward for domestic, family and sexual violence (DFSV) reform. It also is a great step forward to begin recognising the broader systems that entangle women in cycles of harm. Among these, gambling harm stands out as a crucial, often overlooked issue.
Highlights from the Recommendations
Governance and Leadership
Establish a standalone ministerial portfolio for DFSV.
Appoint a Government Steward to coordinate reform across departments.
Integrate DFSV outcomes into Chief Executive performance plans.
Create a 5 year statewide DFSV strategy with clear accountability.
Form Lived Experience Advisory Networks for adults and children.
Justice and Legal Reform
Criminalise coercive and controlling behaviour.
Improve police and judicial training to identify non physical and economic abuse.
Create safe court environments and independent reporting pathways for police related offences.
Recovery and Support
Expand supports beyond crisis to include housing, counselling, and financial recovery.
Recognise and address economic abuse, debt coercion and asset control as core violence forms.
Guarantee access to affordable mental health and legal support for survivors.
Prevention and Cultural Change
Fund a statewide primary prevention strategy targeting schools and communities.
Invest in early intervention, men’s behaviour change, and community education.
Challenge harmful gender norms, sexist media portrayals and language.
Remove outdated defences like “reasonable chastisement” to align with children’s rights.
Women, Gambling Harm and Financial Abuse
While the Royal Commission focuses broadly on DFSV, its findings about economic abuse and coercive control resonate deeply with what we see every day at The Untangle Project.
For many women, gambling harm is interwoven with domestic and financial abuse. It can be both a coping mechanism and a control tool. Partners may:
Coerce women into gambling or force access to winnings.
Create hidden debts or use gambling to justify financial control.
Sabotage recovery efforts through manipulation or economic dependency.
The Evidence
46% of Australian gamblers report some level of harm risk, with women often facing hidden emotional and financial consequences.
Women’s gambling is more likely to stem from stress, trauma or social isolation, and is often stigmatised and hidden.
Gambling harm correlates strongly with relationship strain, debt, mental health challenges and intimate partner violence.
In short, ignoring gambling harm weakens our response to domestic and family violence. Recovery requires rebuilding not just safety, but financial stability, autonomy and trust.
How We Can Act — Together
At The Untangle Project, we believe the Royal Commission’s vision can only succeed if it recognises gambling harm as part of the broader ecosystem of coercion and control.
Here’s how we can begin:
1. Integrate Gambling Awareness into DFSV Systems
Screen for gambling harm during intake and risk assessments.
Build referral partnerships between DFSV, financial counselling and gambling support services.
Advocate for policy inclusion, including embedding gambling harm under “financial abuse” within the implementation framework.
2. Destigmatise Women’s Gambling Harm
Share lived experience stories (with consent) to challenge stereotypes.
Promote women only and trauma informed support spaces.
Ensure prevention campaigns speak directly to women’s lived realities.
3. Strengthen Systemic Safeguards
Support loss limits, self exclusion and advertising restrictions.
Hold venues and platforms accountable for breaching harm-minimisation laws.
Frame gambling harm as a public health issue, not an individual failure.
4. Provide Holistic, Trauma Informed Support
Offer integrated pathways: financial counselling, housing, legal and therapeutic care.
Recognise cultural safety and intersectionality, ensuring access for Aboriginal, CALD, LGBTQIA+, and rural women.
Foster peer mentorship and survivor leadership in service design.
5. Measure and Learn
Collect and analyse data on DFSV gambling overlap.
Track recovery metrics in both safety and financial stability.
Use feedback from lived experience to guide service evolution.
Moving Forward with Courage
The Royal Commission’s With Courage report is more than a policy blueprint. it’s a collective call for change. But change demands collaboration.
At The Untangle Project, we are committed to:
Amplifying women’s voices affected by gambling and financial abuse.
Partnering with services to build trauma informed, gender aware interventions.
Advocating for systemic reform that honours the complexity of women’s lives.
Together, we can ensure the Commission’s promise of safety, dignity and justice reaches every woman, in every circumstance.