Domestic violence is new ‘terror’ threat

An increase in killings of women by current or former partners has revived calls for Australia to use stronger language to classify perpetrators, with some leaders saying domestic violence should be considered an act of terror.

It comes as Anthony Albanese ruled out holding a Royal Commission into violence against women after the nation recorded a significant rise in rates of intimate partner homicide. According to the latest police data, rates of female partner homicide have increased by 28 per cent since 2022, with most of those murdered by a male intimate or exintimate partner being women.

Ahead of an urgent national cabinet meeting on Wednesday, federal Labor MP Anne Aly, a survivor of domestic violence, said it was crucial to recognise that many women were being terrorised.

“I think for women who are in that situation it is terrifying and it is terror,” Dr Aly said.

Statistics released by the Australian Institute of Criminology have revealed that in the latest reporting period – from July 2022 to June 2023 – there were 232 homicides, up 4 per cent on the previous year.

Indigenous women are nearly seven times more likely to die at the hands of a current or former partner.

The AIC said that despite a recent increase, rates of homicide had dropped by 52 per cent since the late 1980s.

Between 2022-2023, about 69 per cent of homicide victims in Australia were men. Indigenous men are more than eight times more likely to be killed in a homicide incident than non-Indigenous men, data showed.