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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.


"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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