This article contains references to domestic violence.
Eleven Australian women have been violently killed in 2025 so far.
That's according to Counting Dead Women, a project by advocacy group Destroy The Joint.
Journalist and campaigner Sherele Moody, who also counts Australian women killed overseas or by non-intimate partners, estimates the toll is closer to 19.
"Three women have been killed this week by men in Australia. Where is the outrage? Where is the urgency?" said Tara Hunter, director of clinical and client services at Full Stop Australia.
She's not the only one sounding the alarm.
Professor Kate Fitz-Gibbon from Monash University is an international expert in the field of domestic and family violence.
She says violence against women and children has "barely registered" as an issue in the election campaign so far.
"Despite being declared a national crisis by the prime minister in 2024, we have seen little more than silence from political leaders," Fitz-Gibbon told SBS News.
"That silence sends a dangerous message: that the safety of women and children is not a national priority.
"We have a national plan that includes the ambition of ending gender-based violence in one generation — and yet in this election, there is absolute silence on the issue."
Phillip Ripper is the CEO of No to Violence, an organisation that works with men who use family violence.
He said that while all major parties have shown personal commitment, "none have announced new family violence policies or funding".
"There is tremendous appetite and expectation in the community for our leaders to address the crisis — yet before [this week], there had been virtually no mention of this issue during the election campaign," he told SBS News.
What the parties are promising
Both Labor and the Coalition support the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children, which sets a target to reduce the number of women killed by intimate partner violence by 25 per cent per year.
The Liberal campaign told SBS News it would: "Invest significantly in family support services, including emergency payments to assist women and children fleeing domestic violence, which the Coalition established in 2021."
"A Dutton Coalition Government will also create new offences to make it illegal to use mobile phone and computer networks to cause an intimate partner or family member to fear for their personal safety, to track them using spyware or to engage in coercive behaviours. We will also ensure tough bail laws apply to these new Commonwealth offences."
SBS asked the Labor Party what it was promising this election campaign to tackle domestic and family violence but had not received a response at the time of writing.
Ripper said that while politicians show "deep commitments" to ending family violence, this hasn't translated into new funding or strategies.
At a recent forum hosted by No to Violence, representatives from Labor, the Coalition, the Greens and Independents shared their views.
- Labor: Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said the Albanese government’s focus is on prevention and early intervention, especially online misogyny and abuse. Ending gender-based violence also featured in the March women’s budget statement — but the budget itself included little new funding. The Albanese government invested $4 billion in 2022 to support the National Action Plan.
- Coalition: In his address to the Liberal Party at the election campaign launch this week, Opposition leader Peter Dutton briefly touched upon the issue and said his government will "toughen Commonwealth bail laws to stop domestic violence offenders". Senator Kerrynne Liddle, whose sister was killed in a domestic violence incident, said a Coalition government would establish a royal commission into sexual abuse in Indigenous communities. It has also flagged a focus on children and early intervention, but not broader sexual violence reform.
- Greens: Senator Larissa Waters criticised the underfunding of frontline services, calling for legal and justice system reform to reduce victim-blaming and retraumatisation. The party has committed to piloting alternative, survivor-led justice approaches. In November 2024, the Greens announced a $15 billion costed election policy package to address family, domestic and sexual violence.
- Independents: MP Zoe Daniel is pushing for guaranteed, multi-year funding, especially for services supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. She has described the high rates of violence against Indigenous women as a national failure.
Fitz-Gibbon said that neither major party has put forward a "comprehensive, future-focused plan to prevent and respond to violence against women and children".
Hunter added there has been a "deafening silence" from both sides — on the campaign trail and in the most recent budgets.
The cost of violence
A KPMG report prepared for the Department of Social Services estimated the cost of domestic and family violence in Australia in 2015-16 at $22 billion. That's $28 billion in today's dollars.
The social impacts are just as severe.
A recent report titled The Cost of Domestic Violence to Women's Employment and Education by the University of Technology Sydney found young women affected by violence are significantly less likely to finish university or work full-time, and are 10 percentage points less likely to be employed.
"There has been a focus on cost of living — but not on the cost of living with violence," Ripper said.
"There has been a focus on housing and community safety — but not on safety within people’s homes."
Hunter added that the impact of domestic violence was pervasive in victims' lives.
"Homelessness and housing insecurity, financial instability, reduced participation in the workforce and education, and preventable physical and mental ill-health are all impacts felt by victim-survivors and their families," she said.
"This beggars belief, given the scale of the crisis.
“The rate of female intimate partner homicide went up by nearly 30 per cent in a single year. Frontline services are stretched well beyond capacity — with wait times of up to a year to access specialist sexual assault services, and women and children forced to sleep in their cars or remain unsafe with their abusers, because refuges do not have enough beds."
What experts say needs to happen
All three experts SBS News spoke to said there were gaps in the national plan and it needed more funding.
Fitz-Gibbon says the next federal government must commit to "guaranteed, multi-year funding" for frontline domestic, family and sexual violence services, adding that currently, crisis services are stretched and unable to meet demand.
Hunter says this should include shelters, casework, counselling, financial help and legal services — and that all efforts must be backed by measurable targets.
"Keeping the community safe is the highest obligation of government," she said.
"It’s beyond overdue that the crisis of sexual, domestic and family violence receives the investment it deserves."
Ripper says prevention — not just crisis support — must be at the heart of any national strategy.
"We keep spending money on moving women and children to safety, and of course, this is vitally important, but it does nothing to stop the violence from happening in the first place," he said.
"That strategy must focus on disrupting men’s pathways into using violence and breaking intergenerational cycles of violence; on early intervention with people at risk of using family violence; and intervention to work with men to end their use of family violence."
Fitz-Gibbon added: "Australians deserve more than crisis declarations and headline-grabbing moments. They deserve a government that treats the safety of women and children as core business — not a political afterthought."
If you or someone you know is impacted by family and domestic violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, text 0458 737 732, or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000.
