Australia has lost more than 1300 women and girls to acts of violence since 2000. Yet there's been no national examination of the systemic failures and cultural attitudes underpinning our femicide epidemic.

I am calling on the Federal Government to hold a royal commission into the killing of women and girls.

The Royal Commission would examine all unlawful deaths of women and girls, including intimate partner and domestic violence, associate violence (the violent deaths of women and girls by people known to them but who are not related) and stranger violence. 

It would also:

• Examine the need for a  federal femicide law similar to those already in place in other countries; 
• Investigate why First Nations women are more likely than any other woman to experience traumatic injury or death as a result of intimate partner violence.
• Examine the complex and significant needs of women from diverse and marginalised backgrounds including First Nations women, women with English as a second language, women who are chronically ill or living with disability, sex workers, trans and gender non-binary people and women who are lesbian, bisexual, intersex or queer.
• Lay bare the systemic failures that underpin the violent deaths of women and girls, including the ways in which police, the courts and support services routinely fail victims before they are killed;
• Look into increased provision of appropriate resources and funding to ensure all women and girls have access to services including safe and affordable housing and legal supports;
• Examine how the legal system is designed around the rights and needs of perpetrators not the victims and how this impacts sentencing, parole and bail outcomes;
• Examine the factors of violence against women which Our Watch describes as: Condoning of violence against women; Men’s control of decision-making and limits to women’s independence in public and private life; Rigid gender stereotyping and dominant forms of masculinity; and Male peer relations and cultures of masculinity that emphasise aggression, dominance and control; and
• Examine how social media and mainstream media frame attitudes towards women and girls. In the wake of violence, we often see journalists victim-blaming dead women with unethical headlines and story angles; while some social media users excuse  the actions of violent men. 

From five-day-old babies to great grandmothers in their 90s, I've spent more than 10 years documenting every unlawful deaths of women and children across our country.

From January 1, 2000 to now, more than 1300 women and girls have been killed. Yet the political will to end the killings often seems non-existent. 

When two violent men murdered 15 people at Bondi Beach on December 14, 2025, the calls for a  royal commission into antisemitism were swift and ongoing. Yes, each of these victims is important and their deaths must be examined.

There were no calls for a Royal Commission when a man committed the act of mass femicide at Bondi Westfield in 2024; when Rowan Baxter murdered Hannah Clarke and her children in Brisbane; or when Anthony Robert Harvey murdered five female members of his family in 2018 at Bedford.

Just this week, a man allegedly murdered Sophie Quinn and her unborn son, Nerida Quinn and John Harris at Lake Cargelligo. There's been no  recognition of their deaths from our political leaders and no suggestion of an RC into their deaths.

Already (as I write) we have lost four women to acts of male violence this year.

Last year, 77 women were killed in 2025 and in 2024, I counted the unlawful killing of 105 women. This means we have lost 186 women since January 1, 2024.

Every four days, on average, a woman or girl is killed in Australia. Almost always by a man.  Too often, their deaths are swept aside and forgotten. 

Every one of these Australians is a valued and much-loved human, missed by her family, her friends and her community. She is most often a daughter, a mother, an aunt, a sister, a grandmother - she is always someone unique and vital! 

Every death is documented on the Memorial to Women and Children Lost to Violence.