Key Points
- The number of women being killed by an intimate partner has been rising, according to a new report.
- National Cabinet will meet on Wednesday to discuss measures for violence against women.
- Rallies were held across the country over the weekend, with thousands calling for further action.
This article contains references to gender-based violence.
The number of women killed by an intimate partner was rising sharply even before the recent spate of deaths sparked outrage and protests across the country.
The number of women murdered by former or current partners rose by 28 per cent in the year to June 2023, the latest Homicide in Australia report shows as the prime minister prepares to convene an urgent meeting of the nation’s leaders.
Released by the Australian Institute of Criminology on Tuesday, the report found 16 per cent of all homicides in 2022/23 were carried out by a current or former intimate partner.
Of those, 89 per cent of all victims of intimate partner homicides were women.
What’s being done?
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will meet state and territory leaders at a virtual National Cabinet on Wednesday to discuss preventative measures for violence against women.
The family and sexual violence commissioner has been invited to make a presentation at the specially convened cabinet.
The meeting will examine measures to strengthen prevention and focus on online harms, including countering violent and misogynistic content.
Further opportunities for states and the Commonwealth to share information about high-risk perpetrators and serial offenders will also be examined.
This is not a women’s issue, it is a national crisis, and we have to take responsibility for addressing it as a nation.
Anthony Albanese
“It is not enough to support victims or mourn them — we need to focus on the perpetrators and on prevention.”
Minister says comparison to terror is apt
Early Childhood Minister Anne Aly, who is a domestic violence survivor, says the statistics remain alarming.
There have been calls to classify violence against women as a form of terrorism and Aly says the comparison is apt.
“For the women who are in that situation it is terrifying, and it is terror, and I’ve heard stories of women who have had to move from place,” she told ABC Radio on Tuesday.
“For the women who are being terrorised, it is very much violence, terrorism, control.”
Priorities for legal reforms
“Information sharing, judicial reforms, frontline service resourcing and perpetrator accountability all needed to be addressed,” NSW Women’s Safety Commissioner Hannah Tonkin said.
Law reforms needed to look at what conditions were placed on apprehended violence orders and penalties for breaches, especially for repeat and high-risk offenders, she said.
Australian Institute of Criminology deputy director Rick Brown said the overall homicide rate in the country was 4 per cent higher in 2022/23 than the previous year. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch
“We know that the majority of perpetrators are men, and the majority of survivors are women, so in most cases we are talking about men exercising power and control over women,” Tonkin told the ABC’s 7:30 program.
“We need to see how we can prevent that and prevent the murders from continuing to happen.”
Young boys’ exposure to online porn while they were developing attitudes about women and relationships also needed to be addressed, the commissioner said.
Boys and young men are exposed to really extreme online misogyny, often from a very early age and it is often targeting them through the algorithms and in an aggressive way.
Hannah Tonkin
Widespread rallies across the country at the weekend, with thousands of demonstrators calling for further action from the government, have added urgency to the situation.
Australian Institute of Criminology deputy director Rick Brown said the overall homicide rate in the country was 4 per cent higher in 2022/23 than the previous year.
Women killed by an intimate partner increased by 28 per cent, Dr Brown said.
The institute’s report also found 49 per cent of all female homicide victims in the past financial year were killed by their current or former intimate partner.
Of the 69 women killed in homicides where the offender was known, 17 per cent were killed by another family member.
“Female victims were much less likely than male victims to be killed by an acquaintance or by a stranger,” the report said.
Despite the rise in overall homicides, the 2022/23 rate marked a 52 per cent reduction compared to 1989/90.
There were 232 homicide incidents, with 247 victims and 260 offenders, in the past financial year.
If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault or family and domestic violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, text 0458 737 732, or visit . In an emergency, call 000.
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Tyler Mitchell