• Violence against women is widespread – 1 in 3 Australian women have experienced physical violence and 1 in 5 have experienced sexual violence.
• An estimated 25% of women have experienced emotional abuse by a partner including financial abuse, isolation from family and friends, continual humiliation, threats against children or being threatened with injury or death.
• By 2021-22, domestic violence and sexual assault perpetrated against women will cost the Australian economy $15.6 billion in that year, if extra steps are not taken.
• The Commonwealth Government led development of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against women and their children 2010-2022, a comprehensive long-term strategic approach aimed at delivering “a significant and sustained reduction in violence against women by 2022”.
• Out of respect for the more than 500 Australian women and their children who have been killed since “The National Plan to Reduce Violence against women and their Children 2010-2022” was approved, and the many thousands of Australian women who have lived in fear over that time, the NFAW recommendations outlined below set a very high bar for policy commitments to make a difference.