‘Deafening’: Billion-dollar ‘national emergency’ barely worth a mention in election campaign

Hge News
Apr 25
2 min read

It’s the critical issue that costs Australia an estimated $26 billion a year and rising — and one that, if you’ve been listening to Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton for the past four of this five-week federal election campaign, has barely crossed the lips of either leader.

Already in 2025, an estimated 23 Australian women have lost their lives — the majority allegedly as a result of male violence — according to award-winning journalist and Australian Femicide Watch founder, Sherele Moody. Seven of those have occurred within the last week.

“Each of them was a statistic. Each should still be alive,” National Women’s Safety Alliance director, Katherine Berney, wrote in Women’s Agenda this week.

“Yet not one question about gender-based violence was raised in the first two leaders’ debates … The message from our political class is deafening – tax cuts, defence, and housing are national priorities. But women’s lives? Not even worth a mention.

“This silence isn’t just disappointing, it’s dangerous.”

Last year was the worst 12 months on record for men’s violence against women in Australia since 2016. That approximately one woman was (allegedly) killed every four days by a current or former partner threw into sharp relief the effectiveness of the response systems – including police and courts – meant to keep them safe, and the dire lack of funding appointed to critical specialist domestic, family and sexual violence response services.

Yet the federal budget in March hardly touched the sides of the level of investment needed to meet demand for frontline services, “let alone allow services to expand and improve their capacity”, Monash University’s Dr Kate Fitz-Gibbon told news.com.au at the time.