On 10 Sep 2026, I gave a Speech on Domestic and Family Violence
Transcript:
Ms WATSON-BROWN:
I rise to speak to the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner’s 2026 Report to parliament.
This report details the shocking realities of domestic, family, and sexual violence that is ongoing in Australia.
At least 35 women have been killed by violence so far this year, according to Counting Dead Women.
Recently in Queensland, 4 women were killed in domestic violence related incidents in a 45 day period.
At least 39,758 women were sexually assaulted in Australia last year.
Women living with disability are still 3 times more likely to experience domestic, family and sexual violence.
First Nations women are still 27 times more likely to be hospitalised by assault.
We owe it to all those women and children to act urgently.
We owe it to all the victim survivors and experts who contributed to numerous inquiries, reliving their trauma in the hopes that their experience would shape reforms, to act.
Responsibility means properly funding the long, slow, hard work of changing attitudes and behaviour, and the workforce needed to do that work.
Housing and economic security are women’s safety issues.
If women and children can’t afford to leave and have nowhere to go, they cannot escape violence.
Every year, nearly 12,000 women and children are turned away from short term accommodation.
For those who can get into crisis accommodation, 60% have not been able to find stable housing by the time they leave. That often means returning to a violent perpetrator.
It would cost around $4.6 billion to build public housing for the 12,000 women and children currently missing out. Giving them a place to go means giving them an opportunity to escape violence and rebuild their lives.
If Labor is serious in its commitment to end violence, they need to get serious about funding housing.
And also we know that too many women and children are left in poverty because of financial abuse from current or former partners. I welcome reforms to prevent weaponisation of the child support system and moves today to allow limited debts to be excused.
This is a good first step, but more is needed - waivers for all debts accrued through financial abuse, penalties for financial advisers complicit in the abuse, and funding for specialist financial abuse support services.
To meet these challenges investment in prevention and early intervention programs is essential.
But prevention funding must not come at the expense of funding crisis responses.
Every week 225 women and children are turned away from crisis accommodation.
Women’s Legal Services are turning away 52,000 people a year because they can’t keep up with demand.
Funding to 1800 RESPECT, while welcome, just creates more referrals to specialist sexual violence services who are already too full.
Women are being forced to wait months for expert sexual violence support, at a time when she needs support the most.
Every barrier and delay is traumatic and makes women less safe.
We don’t even know the exact scale of unmet need because the work to gather that data is still not done.
But we know the crisis response sector is at breaking point and the government must step up.
Of course we should be working towards a future free from violence. But in the meantime we cannot let women and children experiencing violence right now fall through the cracks.
It takes long term, secure funding. And unless this Government provides secure funding, and holds State governments to account, things are not going to get better.