Australia’s plan to curb violence against women is missing its target, commission says
?s top authority on domestic abuse says the federal government’s promise to end violence against women and children within a generation is slipping ...
Australia’s top authority on domestic abuse says the federal government’s promise to end violence against women and children within a generation is slipping out of reach as sexual violence remains at record levels. The warning will land in parliament on Wednesday, when the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission releases its annual report.
The commission says current policy has not meaningfully lowered sexual violence rates. The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, released after the report was drafted, show 39,758 victims of sexual assault recorded in Australia in 2025. That was down by less than 1 per cent from the previous year. Barely a move.
Record numbers, weak signals
Commissioner Micaela Cronin said the headline numbers do not tell the full story because reporting to police remains very low. “Despite record highs, we know that reporting rates to police remain extremely low,” she wrote.
That gap matters. A lot.
Cronin also said repeated inquiries have found many people get poor responses from the justice system, family law, health, education and community services. For victims, that can mean the path from disclosure to support is still full of friction, delay and mistrust.
Goals the government cannot measure
As the commission reviews progress on Labor’s national action plan, it has raised alarm that more than two-thirds of its goals cannot be tracked because governments are not collecting the data needed to measure them. That leaves ministers with a plan, but limited proof of what is working.
The criticism cuts to the heart of Labor’s pledge. The government has framed the national plan as a long-term effort to stop violence against women and children in a generation. The commission’s message is that the machinery behind that promise is not delivering enough measurable change, at least not yet.
The timing is awkward for Canberra. The annual report arrives after the latest assault data showed only a marginal decline, and after advocates warned this year that the second action plan was still giving sexual violence too little attention.
In July, sexual violence advocates raised concerns that the next stage of the plan was again failing to properly address the issue. A consultation snapshot circulated by the Department of Social Services made only passing reference to sexual violence, with the term appearing just once in connection with crisis accommodation for people leaving family, domestic and sexual violence.
Pressure for a sharper response
That criticism is likely to sharpen pressure on the government as it responds to the commission’s report. The question now is not just whether Australia can reduce violence, but whether it can even track progress with enough precision to know what is changing.
The commission’s warning lands against a broader backdrop that is familiar well beyond Australia: official counts often understate abuse, while slow justice responses and uneven services keep many victims from coming forward. Similar problems have dogged prevention efforts in other countries, where governments have set ambitious targets but struggled to match them with reliable data and sustained services.
The report will be tabled on Wednesday. What follows will be harder still: deciding whether Labor’s plan needs a reset, or a far tougher delivery test than it has faced so far.
