Australia Sexual Violence Crime Rate Hits 33-Year High; Indigenous Women, Children Suffer as Federal Reform Lags

Australia's Federal Commissioner for Domestic and Sexual Violence, Micaela Cronin, submitted her annual report to parliament on the 10th, admitting that she is "deeply concerned" about the trajectory of gender-based violence in Australia. According to ABC News, the commissioner's report shows that Australians are enduring "unacceptable levels of harm" within the family law and justice systems, and incidents of sexual violence continue to climb, reaching their highest level in 33 years in 2024, with a decline of less than 1% over the past year.

"I am deeply concerned about the current trajectory, particularly with regard to sexual violence, which is indeed trending upward among young people," Cronin told ABC News. "We must confront what is not working and what is working. This is a genuine problem, and the national discussion over recent weeks has made that abundantly clear."

Justice system accused of 'designed attrition'

The recommendation to provide dedicated lawyers for sexual violence victims was put forward 18 months ago, but as of now, no state or territory legislature has completed relevant legislation or implementation. Sarah Rosenberg, executive director of the advocacy organization With You We Can, who has personally experienced the justice process following sexual violence, publicly criticized this gap in her remarks to ABC News.

"Very few victims report; even when they do, very few cases progress to the charge stage. This is not a matter of personal choice, but a designed attrition," Rosenberg said. "The Australian Law Reform Commission has explicitly told the government what to do: provide dedicated lawyers for victims. Eighteen months later, not a single jurisdiction has completed relevant legislation or implementation."

Cronin directed her criticism at the justice system itself in the report. She said family law courts remain subject to "weaponization", with some parties using court proceedings to continue relationships and perpetuate harm, and that some rulings "place children in danger." She also wrote: "Australia has, to a large extent, invested in systems that respond when violence reaches crisis point. These services are indispensable, but on their own they cannot reduce the incidence or impact of gender-based violence."

Indigenous women and children: bucking the national trend

Against the backdrop of the overall number of women killed by intimate partners having declined continuously since the late 1980s, the indicator for Indigenous women has moved in the opposite direction. The commissioner's report shows that the rate of Indigenous women killed by intimate partners reached 4 victims per 100,000 in 2024-2025, and has risen year by year in the two years since the baseline was first set in the inaugural report. Cronin herself cautioned that, since the baseline has only recently been set, it is too early to judge long-term trends.

The rate of Indigenous children hospitalized due to family violence has likewise climbed to the highest since records began, at 45 cases per 100,000. This rate declined between 2019 and 2022 but has rebounded sharply since. Cronin wrote in the report that the experiences of Indigenous women and children within existing support systems are "deeply distressing."

Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek, upon tabling the report in parliament, acknowledged that despite some progress, what has been done remains insufficient. She told ABC News that she feels a "strong sense of urgency" about driving change and disclosed that she herself had been attacked while walking home at night in Canberra.

Second action plan roadmap delayed to 2027

The federal government is currently developing the second five-year action plan under the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children. However, ABC News reported that the roadmap to translate broad goals into concrete, actionable pathways is not expected to be released until the first half of 2027.

Kate Fitz-Gibbon, a gender violence researcher at Monash University, described the latest figures as "alarming" and said they constitute a "call to action" for governments at all levels. "There has been some progress, but significantly greater effort is still required," she said. She also pointed out that school staff have not yet received sufficient early intervention training to identify and refer at-risk children and adolescents in a timely manner.