20/05/2026
There is no single community untouched by family violence. As a specialist family violence service, we see the ongoing impact every day — and we know this violence is preventable. We join Safe and Equal in calling for urgent action, meaningful investment and a collective commitment to change.
We are devastated to share that police are investigating the death of another Victorian woman, who is believed to have been killed by a man known to her.
The bodies of a 29-year-old woman and a 31-year-old man were found in a home in Werribee on Friday afternoon after police were called for a welfare check. A spokeswoman for Victoria Police said detectives were not looking for anyone else in relation to the deaths and the pair knew each other.
Following this heartbreaking news, on Saturday afternoon the body of a woman believed to be in her sixties was found in her home in Tasmania. A 57-year-old man, a resident of the same home, has been charged with her murder.
And on Monday, a woman and her two sons, aged four and twelve, were murdered in Sydney, with a man known to the family arrested and charged with three counts of murder.
Last week another woman in her sixties was murdered in Tasmania by a man who then took his own life, and a 51-year-old man who was known to police killed a woman in the ACT.
It has been just over a week since the 2026-27 Federal Budget revealed limited new funding to prevent and respond to family and gender-based violence. In that time, five women and two children have been killed*.
This is a national crisis. Behind these devastating numbers are families, communities and loved ones experiencing unimaginable grief. Every life lost is a preventable and profound tragedy and every day without urgent action puts more women and children at risk. The time for change is now.
*There is still no complete and official list of every Australian woman and child murdered in acts of family and gender-based violence, but there are several key resources we use. At the time of publishing this post, Destroy the Joint has recorded 21 women killed in 2026, and Australian Femicide Watch has recorded 29 women.
However, it is important to remember that the true number of women and children killed is likely higher, as many deaths go unreported and unrecognised as family and gender-based violence.
