Domestic violence related murders are at a 20 year high in NSW

Today in Parliament, Abigail passed a motion highlighting the urgent need to tackle rising domestic violence in NSW, following a 20-year high in murders in 2024 with nearly half of these cases linked to domestic violence.

Abigail said:

I move:

(1) That this House notes that according to the latest crime rate statistics report from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) published on 18 March 2025:

in 2024 NSW recorded the highest number of murders in 20 years. Of the 85 murder victims recorded by NSW Police in 2024, 39 or 45.9% were domestic violence related,
1 in 4 domestic violence related murder victims in 2024 were children, compared to 1 in 10 in 2023, and of the 13 children and young people murdered in 2024, 10 were domestic violence related. This is the highest number recorded in the ten years to 2024,
in the 12 months to December 2024 compared to the year prior:
- domestic violence assault offences increased by 6.5%,
- intimidation, stalking and harassment offences increased by 7.6%,
- sexual assault offences increased by 1.2%,
- sexual touching, sexual acts and other sexual offences increased by 3.9%, and
- ADVO breaches increased by 7.9%, and
in the ten years to December 2024:
- domestic violence assault offences increased by 3.1% per year on average,
- intimidation, stalking and harassment offences increased by 5.3%,
- sexual assault offences increased by 8.8% per year on average,
- sexual touching, sexual acts and other sexual offences increased by 2.9% per year on average, and
- ADVO breaches increased by 7.4% per year on average.

(2) That this House further notes that:

this recorded data doesn’t even demonstrate the full extent of gendered violence across our state, given how under-reported violence is and the inability of administrative crime statistics to capture the full picture of the scale and complexity of domestic, family and sexual violence, and
in commenting on the recent BOCSAR statistics, Domestic Violence NSW (DVNSW) CEO Delia Donovan highlighted that “these findings are sadly not surprising for us at DVNSW and for those working across the domestic, family and sexual violence sector. Each life lost represents a failure of our systems to protect and support those at risk. It’s completely unacceptable that we’re begging for a baseline funding increase when we are presented with these harrowing figures”.

Motion agreed to.

Read the transcript in Hansard here.

6 May 2025

A UNIVERSAL WELLBEING PAYMENT FOR NSW

No matter who you are or what you do, everyone has the right to share in the wellbeing of our country.

But at the moment the essentials so many of us need – a place to call home, food on the table, and everyday essentials like electricity, internet, medicine and water – are simply out of reach.

Instead of supporting us, our government is choosing to prop up huge corporations with massive subsidies, and to give away our collective wealth through record tax cuts for the wealthy. Meanwhile, the rest of us are left to live paycheck to paycheck or trapped in the dehumanising bureaucracy of our existing welfare system.

Now, in the midst of a pandemic, and following quickly on the heels of the bushfire crisis, more of us than ever before are experiencing what it’s like to lose our jobs, be without a home, or worry about where the food for our next meal will come from.

It’s time for us to choose to prioritise the wellbeing of everyone.

And that’s exactly what the Universal Wellbeing Payment will do.

It’s a regular payment made to each of us to ensure our minimum standard of wellbeing. No means testing, no bureaucracy, no strings attached.

It’s the amount you’re owed simply for being a participant in our society.

It means you are free to live your life and contribute to society as you see fit, whether you’re a carer, an artist, a student, a parent, an entrepreneur – you can get on with what you need to do, knowing that you will always be supported regardless of your income.

It means that we’re choosing to structure our economy for the benefit of all of us, not using our collective wealth to prop up the interests of big business and the wealthy few.

It means you will always have what you need to live a good life, no matter what.

The Universal Wellbeing Payment is for everyone. Help us make it happen.

For more information, head to universalwellbeingpayment.com.au

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Domestic violence related murders are at a 20 year high in NSW

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