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What Victoria’s inquiry into cults will examine

By Jaime Simpson and Kathleen McPhillips

The Victorian parliament has launched a long-overdue inquiry into abuse and coercive control within cults and religious fringe groups.

It is a welcome acknowledgement of the damage that can flourish under the guise of faith, and the unquestioning obedience to authoritarian leaders in religious groups.

The inquiry will hear victim-survivors can suffer a diverse range of harms, including sexual, financial and labour exploitation, spiritual manipulation, and institutional betrayal.

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"Many people fail to grasp how intelligent adults can become trapped in such environments. But coercive control is not about intelligence – it’s about power, dependency, and the slow erosion of critical thinking by spiritual authority."
Jaime Simpson

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