Joint statement

Minister for Women
Senator the Hon Katy Gallagher

Minister for Social Services
The Hon Amanda Rishworth MP

Attorney-General
Cabinet Secretary
The Hon Mark Dreyfus KC MP

Joint media release

The Australian Institute of Criminology’s National Homicide Monitoring Program has found 34 women were killed by an intimate partner in 2022-23, an increase of 28 per cent on the previous year.

The report finds a total of 232 homicides were recorded by police between 1 July 2022 and 30 June 2023, a four per cent rise from the previous year.

While this is Australia’s third lowest homicide rate on record, and the overall rate of 0.87 per 100,000 has halved since 1989-1990, the number of women killed by an intimate partner rose from 26 to 34 victims.

89 per cent of victims of intimate partner homicides were women.

Every single one of these lives lost causes ongoing grief and trauma for families, friends and entire communities that will never be forgotten.

The Albanese Government is committed to combatting the crime of homicide, as well as ending violence against women and children in a generation. We want to see the number of intimate partner homicides falling each year.

The number of women who continue to be killed by current or former intimate partners demonstrates that more needs to be done to end gender-based violence, so all women in Australia are safe.

Understanding the scale of the issue with accurate, verified, closer to real-time data is critical.

Last year, the Albanese Government announced a new statistical dashboard is being developed that will provide more timely reporting on intimate partner homicide that is currently being developed by the AIC.

The new dashboard will be operational in mid-2024 and will provide essential insights into the incidence of intimate partner homicides so we can better understand and address this terrible crime.

The Albanese Government is committed to taking action to reduce intimate partner homicide through the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022-2032.

In our first two Budgets, the Albanese Government has made record investment of $2.3 billion in women’s safety to tackle family, domestic and sexual violence.

But we know we must continue to do more.

The Prime Minister has convened a National Cabinet for Wednesday, 1 May 2024, so that the Commonwealth and all states and territories are able to come together on this critical issue.

The National Plan also supports the efforts of law enforcement, the family, domestic and sexual violence sector and policy makers to develop priority responses.

In our last Budget, we announced the development of a national perpetrator risk assessment framework to identify risks posed by perpetrators and support earlier intervention.

Everyone has a role to play in ending violence against women and we know that all governments have more work to do.

Our Government is committed to taking action to tackle the scourge of violence against women in Australia.

The Homicide in Australia reports are available on the AIC website.