Advocate urges cross-portfolio action on domestic violence ahead of Victorian election
Dr Joumanah El-Matrah argues that specialist services are overwhelmed and demands practical commitments from political parties to address the root causes of family violence.
Dr Joumanah El-Matrah, chief executive of Safe and Equal, has published an opinion piece in The Guardian calling for urgent government action to address the rising number of domestic violence deaths in Australia. The article highlights that a woman is killed by someone she trusted every 11 days, citing data that shows 37 women were allegedly killed by men in 2026, alongside 17 child deaths.
The piece notes that four women were allegedly killed by male violence in the week prior to publication, with two of the victims being teenagers in Victoria. Across the country, nine women have died in Victoria this year. El-Matrah argues that specialist family violence services are currently overwhelmed, with demand vastly outpacing capacity, leaving many women and children unable to access help before violence reaches a crisis point.
El-Matrah urges the Victorian government, ahead of the November election, to prioritise early intervention and accountability for perpetrators. She argues that women’s safety cannot sit within a single government portfolio and requires practical commitments across policing, housing, mental health, schools, and the justice system. The article frames the issue as rooted in a long history of treating women as lesser citizens, requiring a societal reckoning and repair.
The opinion piece distinguishes between recording bodies, noting that Destroy the Joint has recorded 27 women killed in 2026, while Australian Femicide Watch has recorded 37. It emphasises that there is no complete and official list of every Australian woman and child killed in alleged acts of family and gender-based violence, and that legal culpability has not necessarily been established for all cases.
El-Matrah concludes that prevention requires moving beyond a crisis response model to build a system that can recognise risk and intervene early. She calls on all political parties to answer how they will make women safer, stating that keeping women safe is a measure of the kind of society chosen, rather than solely a women’s issue.