Royal Commission into the Killing of Australian Women and Girls
The issue
Australia has lost more than 1300 women and girls to acts of violence since 2000.
Our femicide rate is one of the highest in the world - eclipsing Britain, France, Spain and Italy.
My research shows 60 women and 11 girls killed, mainly by men known to them, between January 1 and November 8, 2026.
We also lose at least one female victim of domestic violence or rape to suicide EVERY DAY. And we have high numbers of suspicious deaths and disappearances of women that are misidentified, by police, as self-harm misadventure or accident.
In other words - gendered violence is killing more than seven women or girls a week. The epidemic of gendered violence is worsening yet there's been no national examination of the systemic failures and cultural attitudes underpinning what is Australia's number one human rights and social justice issue.
This is why I'm calling on the Federal Government to hold a Royal Commission into the Killing of Women and Girls.
The Royal Commission would examine all unlawful deaths of women and girls, including women killed by their partners, former partners, family members and people known to them outside of the family context. It would shine a light on stranger violence killings, the exceptional high rates of suicide post violence and the misidentified deaths.
It would also:
- Hold federal, state and territory governments to account for constantly under-funding violence prevention and support services;
- Examine the need for a federal femicide law similar to those already in place in other countries;
- Lay bare the systemic failures that underpin the violent deaths of women and girls, including the ways in which police, the courts and support services routinely fail victims before they are killed;
- Investigate why First Nations women are more likely than any other woman to experience traumatic injury or death as a result of intimate partner violence.
- Examine the complex and significant needs of women from diverse and marginalised backgrounds including First Nations women, women with English as a second language, women who are chronically ill or living with disability, sex workers, trans and gender non-binary people and women who are lesbian, bisexual, intersex or queer.
- Look into increased provision of appropriate resources and funding to ensure all women and girls have access to services including safe and affordable housing and legal supports;
- Examine how the legal system is designed around the rights and needs of perpetrators not the victims and how this impacts sentencing, parole and bail outcomes;
- Examine how we change the drivers of violence and better respond to the factors that contribute to violence; and
- Examine how social media and mainstream media frame attitudes towards women and girls. In the wake of violence, we often see journalists victim-blaming dead women with unethical headlines and story angles; while some social media users excuse the actions of violent men.
From five-day-old babies to great grandmothers in their 90s, I've spent more than 11 years documenting every unlawful death of women and children across our country.
From January 1, 2000 to now, more than 1300 women and girls have been killed that I can confirm. Yet the political will to end the killings often seems non-existent.
When two violent men murdered 15 people at Bondi Beach on December 14, 2025, the calls for a royal commission into antisemitism were swift and ongoing. Yes, each of these victims is important and their deaths must be examined.
There were no calls for a Royal Commission when a man committed the act of mass femicide at Bondi Westfield in 2024; when Rowan Baxter murdered Hannah Clarke and her children in Brisbane; or when Anthony Robert Harvey murdered five female members of his family in 2018 at Bedford.
Last year, 80 women were killed in 2025 and in 2024, I counted the unlawful killing of 106 women. This means we have lost 186 women since January 1, 2024.
Every day, on average, a woman or girl dies as a result of violence in Australia. Almost always by a man. Too often, their deaths are swept aside and forgotten.
Every one of these Australians is a valued and much-loved human, missed by her family, her friends and her community. She is most often a daughter, a mother, an aunt, a sister, a grandmother - she is always someone unique and vital!
Every death is documented on the Memorial to Women and Children Lost to Violence.
176,244
The issue
Australia has lost more than 1300 women and girls to acts of violence since 2000.
Our femicide rate is one of the highest in the world - eclipsing Britain, France, Spain and Italy.
My research shows 60 women and 11 girls killed, mainly by men known to them, between January 1 and November 8, 2026.
We also lose at least one female victim of domestic violence or rape to suicide EVERY DAY. And we have high numbers of suspicious deaths and disappearances of women that are misidentified, by police, as self-harm misadventure or accident.
In other words - gendered violence is killing more than seven women or girls a week. The epidemic of gendered violence is worsening yet there's been no national examination of the systemic failures and cultural attitudes underpinning what is Australia's number one human rights and social justice issue.
This is why I'm calling on the Federal Government to hold a Royal Commission into the Killing of Women and Girls.
The Royal Commission would examine all unlawful deaths of women and girls, including women killed by their partners, former partners, family members and people known to them outside of the family context. It would shine a light on stranger violence killings, the exceptional high rates of suicide post violence and the misidentified deaths.
It would also:
- Hold federal, state and territory governments to account for constantly under-funding violence prevention and support services;
- Examine the need for a federal femicide law similar to those already in place in other countries;
- Lay bare the systemic failures that underpin the violent deaths of women and girls, including the ways in which police, the courts and support services routinely fail victims before they are killed;
- Investigate why First Nations women are more likely than any other woman to experience traumatic injury or death as a result of intimate partner violence.
- Examine the complex and significant needs of women from diverse and marginalised backgrounds including First Nations women, women with English as a second language, women who are chronically ill or living with disability, sex workers, trans and gender non-binary people and women who are lesbian, bisexual, intersex or queer.
- Look into increased provision of appropriate resources and funding to ensure all women and girls have access to services including safe and affordable housing and legal supports;
- Examine how the legal system is designed around the rights and needs of perpetrators not the victims and how this impacts sentencing, parole and bail outcomes;
- Examine how we change the drivers of violence and better respond to the factors that contribute to violence; and
- Examine how social media and mainstream media frame attitudes towards women and girls. In the wake of violence, we often see journalists victim-blaming dead women with unethical headlines and story angles; while some social media users excuse the actions of violent men.
From five-day-old babies to great grandmothers in their 90s, I've spent more than 11 years documenting every unlawful death of women and children across our country.
From January 1, 2000 to now, more than 1300 women and girls have been killed that I can confirm. Yet the political will to end the killings often seems non-existent.
When two violent men murdered 15 people at Bondi Beach on December 14, 2025, the calls for a royal commission into antisemitism were swift and ongoing. Yes, each of these victims is important and their deaths must be examined.
There were no calls for a Royal Commission when a man committed the act of mass femicide at Bondi Westfield in 2024; when Rowan Baxter murdered Hannah Clarke and her children in Brisbane; or when Anthony Robert Harvey murdered five female members of his family in 2018 at Bedford.
Last year, 80 women were killed in 2025 and in 2024, I counted the unlawful killing of 106 women. This means we have lost 186 women since January 1, 2024.
Every day, on average, a woman or girl dies as a result of violence in Australia. Almost always by a man. Too often, their deaths are swept aside and forgotten.
Every one of these Australians is a valued and much-loved human, missed by her family, her friends and her community. She is most often a daughter, a mother, an aunt, a sister, a grandmother - she is always someone unique and vital!
Every death is documented on the Memorial to Women and Children Lost to Violence.
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Petition created on 23 January 2026