Today in Parliament, Abigail passed a motion acknowledging the critical work of the Domestic Violence Death Review Team, their comprehensive report on domestic homicides in NSW from 1 July 2000 to 30 June 2022 and urged Labor to commit to increase funding for DV homicide prevention efforts.

Abigail said:

I move: 

(1) That this House notes that the Domestic Violence Death Review Team 2021-2023 Report was tabled in Parliament on 8 August 2024, containing data and analysis of domestic violence-context homicides (domestic homicides) in NSW between 1 July 2000 and 30 June 2022 (the Review Period), and included the following findings:

• 550 homicides, being 30% of all homicides during the 22-year Review Period, were domestic homicides,
• 56% of domestic homicides involved a person killing their current or former intimate partner (intimate partner homicides) and of those intimate partner homicides:
  • 79.2% involved men killing women and of those men 98.4% of them were also the predominant domestic violence abuser in the relationship prior to the homicide,
  • of the 18.2% of intimate partner homicides involving a woman killing a man, 82.1% of the women were the predominant domestic violence victim in the relationship prior to the homicide, 
  • 65.6% of women were killed by either their ex-partner or at the point of separation from their male partner,
  • where there were children in the family, the intimate partner homicide was preceded by children experiencing domestic violence, either by being directly abused and/or experiencing the domestic violence of their parents,
  • in 72% of intimate partner homicides, the male predominant abusers had used at least three types of domestic violence against their female partner during the relationship prior to homicide, including: emotional/psychological violence, physical violence, sexual violence, economic violence, and stalking,
  • in 74.5% of the intimate partner homicides that occurred after separation, the male predominant abuser had stalked their former female partner prior to the homicide,
  • in 46.5% of cases, the man’s history of violence against his partner had not been reported to police, and
  • of the men who had prior relationships, 55.8% were known to have perpetrated domestic violence against at least one other female partner,
• a further 8.9% of domestic homicides were connected to intimate partner violence but involved a woman’s ex-partner killing her new (or perceived new) male intimate partner,
• 17.5% of domestic homicides during the Review Period involved parents killing children, with 39.6% of victims being aged one year or less and in all cases the homicide was preceded by a history of domestic violence directed against the child and/or the child had experienced intimate partner violence between their parents, and
• 17.1% of domestic homicides during the Review Period were relative/kin homicides, with 82.2% involving male offenders and 46.8% being parents killed by their son.

(2) That this House further notes that the Domestic Violence Death Review Team in its report highlighted the following:

• men were significantly overrepresented as domestic violence homicide offenders, including as the perpetrators of fatal violence against their children, their relatives and new (or perceived new) intimate partners of their former partner,
• the vast majority of women domestic violence homicide offenders were the predominant victims of domestic violence prior to the homicide, regardless of whether the homicide involved the woman killing an intimate partner, a child or other relative,
• the findings reinforce other research findings that identify actual or intended separation as one of the key high-risk indicators for domestic family violence homicide, including men killing their former partner, their child or their former partner’s new (or perceived new) partner,
• the prevalence of stalking prior to a man murdering his former partner has increased over time, with almost 75% of men stalking the female victim prior to the homicide,
• a significant proportion of both victims and abusers had mental health and/or alcohol and drug issues and that, while mental health and alcohol and drug issues do not cause domestic violence, these issues create particular barriers to accessing services and impact victims’ experiences of violence and risk, 
• there was a relatively high percentage of women domestic violence homicide offenders who were also the primary domestic violence victim in the relationship living in regional or remote communities, highlighting the additional barriers faced by women accessing support outside a major city, and
• while the proportion of people killed who identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander has steadily increased over time, the proportion of domestic violence homicide offenders are increasingly non-indigenous, particularly in the case of intimate partner homicides, and there are a range of complex issues that impede the effective intervention and prevention of violence in First Nations families and communities including poor or discriminatory practices by frontline responders, barriers to accessing appropriate and cultural safe support services, and misidentification of Aboriginal women as domestic violence abusers and “problematic racist attitudes by responders regarding how ‘real’ victims should behave”.

(3) That this House commends the Domestic Violence Death Review Team for its detailed and considered work and calls on the NSW Government to use these findings to implement targeted and adequately-funded evidence-based prevention, response and recovery services and programs for communities across the State.

Read the transcript in Hansard.