Horrifically, during 2025’s Australian federal election campaign cycle so far, 4 women have died in one week (see Women’s Agenda).

A 45-year-old woman was murdered and her two young children grievously injured in Sydney.

Louise Hunt (42 years old) was allegedly murdered by her husband in Geham, Queensland.

Kim Duncan (65) was shot in her own living room.

And Claire Austin (38), who died in hospital after fleeing from a man believed to be her abuser. She had a court date set to get an apprehended violence order (a restraining order / protection order).

The men involved were all known or suspected of being violent or abusive before killing these women.

So with the election on this Saturday, and early voting happening at record levels, we should all ask ourselves: What are the political parties doing to keep women and children in Australia alive?

It’s a huge question, but the response from the Big Boys, Peggy Sue (Peter Dutton) and Albo (Hon. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese), has been tiny, and tokenistic at best.

In contrast, the response from The Greens and some keys independents has been massive, and meaningful for victim-survivors.

Want to keep women and children alive? Here’s who you should vote for in the Australian election.

Let’s break it down by political party.

What The Greens are doing to stop domestic violence

The Greens already do a lot to help victim-survivors of domestic and family violence (DFV) and advocate to prevent further men’s violence.

My local Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather puts a huge amount of their own salary into providing free community dinners every Monday, free school breakfasts, and advocating for housing for people at risk of being evicted.

They work with residents to fight against big developers who are trying to force them out of their own homes.

They were in the mud during the floods of Cyclone Alfred, making sandbags together with volunteers, and helping people get back on their feet.

They’re campaigning to stop pubs and clubs from adding more pokies, because we know that along with alcohol, gambling and debt are some of the most common factors in men choosing to commit violence against women.

They even have a free food pantry at their office, so you can come for a free meal, and ask for help with housing or homelessness.

Looking to the future, The Greens have launched a $15 billion comprehensive plan to address the national crisis of family, domestic, and sexual violence.

And it’s all funded by making the big corporations and mining giants pay tax – because they currently pay less tax than I do as a student teacher and support worker.

So the Greens’ plan will protect women and children, without any tax hikes against vulnerable workers like women, non-binary, and child workers.

But they’re not waiting until election day to act!

What Labor is doing about domestic violence

The Labor government currently in power has not fully funded domestic violence services in Australia, providing only three-quarters of the funding.

That means the money that DV helplines, social workers, women’s shelters, and children’s homes needed just to keep going and keep the lights on.

It’s a truly callous decision by the Labor government.

It says to 1 in 4 women and children in danger, that they don’t “matter” and the government does not care if they die.

It’s not even close to the amount of money needed to meet the increasing needs of victim-survivors trying to escape men’s violence in Australia.

On the other hand, they have made some much-needed commitments to women:

• They made childcare cheaper for over a million Australian families, which makes it easier for women to return to work after kids and maybe raise enough money to leave an abusive relationship.
• They claim to have invested more than $4 billion for women’s safety initiatives, like boosting “frontline services”. (Okay, funding DV helplines and shelters would be good, but we haven’t seen it??? And if frontline means more cops, that’s NOT GOOD.)
• And included in that $4 billion has apparently been some financial and housing support for women escaping violence. (Again, I haven’t seen any of this happening yet, though, and the DV services I’m in contact with agree they haven’t received enough funding – or any funding – for housing. LOL Labor.)
• Increasing women’s access to healthcare, like the endometriosis clinic in Queensland.
• Election promises:
  • Spend $8.6 million (only if elected) on electronic monitoring and ankle bracelets on “high-risk” perpetrators, behaviour change programs for men, and early interventions for young people (hopefully this means young men!).
  • Prevent financial abuse through closing legislation “loopholes” in tax and social security debts.
  • “Look at how we can stop” DFV perpetrators from receiving their victim’s superannuation after death. (OMG, WHY haven’t they done this already?!)
  • “Strengthening our focus to engage men in prevention” hahahhahaha.
  • They “want to” deliver programs that will “prevent violence, not just provide support after it escalates.” (Yeah, I “want to” see that happen, too. Where’s the action?)

Meanwhile, Labor has made record-breaking “investments” into Defence of an additional $764.6 billion over 10 years for our already-capable and respected Defence Force (see Minister for Defence).

A very sweet Labor volunteer at the early voting booths tried to persuade me that Labor MP Renee Coffey “would do a lot” for women and children trying to leave abusive situations.

I smiled and asked, “Why isn’t she doing anything now?”

The volunteer looked baffled and said, “Well, she has to get voted in first.”

No, dear volunteer, she does not.

Taking action for the basic human right to be alive, live in a safe home, and have food to eat, does not require a job title of any description. It does not even require that you have power.

I am powerless in the grand scheme of things, but even I have already helped, by standing with women while they call the cops after violent acts by men; by helping survivors scan through real estate listings for a place they can afford; by telling young people my experiences so they don’t feel alone.

What the Liberals are doing about domestic violence (spoilers: not much)

First off, the Liberals aren’t even in touch with the reality – their website falsely claims that one woman is killed every 11 days, when it’s actually one women every 4 days. Come oooooon, dude.

They claim that when in power, they invested more than $3.5 billion – which is less than Labor – in women’s safety. They focused on:

• Frontline support (This appears to have just meant cops – and makes sense, because Dutton was a cop, he loves cops.)
• Emergency accommodation (Mmmm no, they actually closed a bunch of shelters.)
• Health services (LMAO Dutton was voted the WORST Health Minister in history by Australian doctors and hospitals.)
• Access to legal advice services. (That one’s actually really important, so good job there if they actually did that.)
• Cracking down on online safety and image-based abuse. (Again, the problem got worse, soooo make it make sense.)

In Queensland, the LNP who are Liberals keep threatening to make abortion illegal. This would make it easier for men to trap women in an abusive relationship “for the kids”, and means women are more likely to suffer through post-separation abuse through shared custody of children with violent and controlling men.

Election promises from the Libs:

• Open a National Domestic Violence Register for police and “relevant agencies” (translation: Child Safety) to access and share information about previous family violence convictions.
  • (This is meaningless because it doesn’t solve the actual problem – the courts and the police and Child Safety all already have access to all of this information – they just choose not to do anything with that information.)
• Early and behavioural intervention programs and “tougher monitoring measures” (Very vague, don’t believe them.)
• New domestic violence offences with tough bail laws. (Would be good – but they could have put the legislation to Parliament already and they haven’t.)
• Make national knife laws. (OMG be serious. Knives are not the problem – men’s choice to use knives for non-cooking actions is the problem.)
• Fast-track property settlements in the family law courts. (OMG this is SUCH A MISTAKE. Quicker property settlements make it easier for men, who can almost always afford to get a lawyer while their partner cannot, to rush it through and get more than they deserve.)
• Improve “online safety” for women and children. (Very vague and meaningless if you look at the detail – don’t believe the hype.)
• Expand the Safe Places Emergency Accommodation Program. (They could have done this already if they were like The Greens and were willing to put their money where their mouth is.)
• Emergency payments through the Leaving Violence Program. (Already exists under a different name, but is notoriously difficult for victim-survivors to actually get the money. The Libs are so dumb.)
• Increase crisis helpline support. (Yes, funding the helpline services we already have would be good.)
• Support community organisations to deliver DV awareness training. (This is already happening, and charities are doing it without the Libs’ help. Don’t let Dutton take credit for stuff that people like me are already paying to run, out of the goodness of our own hearts!)
• Recycle mobile phones so victim-survivors cannot be tracked. (This is a very strangely-worded promise, which I have not heard before, and I want to research more.)
• Improve child safety and protection. (Yes, we should do that, but not the way the Libs want to do it. They want to keep the Stolen Generation going.)
• Launch a Royal Commission into Sexual Abuse in Indigenous communities. (OMG what did I just say? The Libs want to keep the Stolen Generation going and cause even more intergenerational trauma to Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.)
• “Strengthen” laws about financial abuse in tax, welfare, and super “Commonwealth taxation, welfare and superannuation systems “where practicable”. (BAHAHA even their tokenistic efforts come with a disclaimer. This is not a real promise – don’t believe them.)

What are independents in Griffith doing about domestic violence?

This was a little trickier to find out, and this is just for my electorate in the key seat of Griffith, so absolutely look up the independents in your area if you’re interested.

Lindsay Bell, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation

Look, I hate this political party for all the racism and homophobia and other prejudice, but I do hope Lindsay Bell is just one person wrapped up in an evil scheme, I don’t know. Point is, I could not find a single result about their policy on this in Google, because they don’t care about us. The last time One Nation talked seriously about domestic violence was in 2017, looks like. So please don’t go there!

Dion Hunt, Gerard Rennick People First

Never heard of them, and apparently Google hasn’t, either. Because they’re not doing anything about domestic violence, as far as I can see…

Please don’t vote for whoever this person might be.

Andrea Campbell, Family First

Very confusing, because there’s a candidate in the USA in Giffords (not Griffith in Australia) who is a Campbell who actually does care about domestic violence. But this Andrea Campbell, maybe not so much… Couldn’t find anything at all from them about stopping domestic violence. So please steer clear!

Aaron Hayes, Trumpet of Patriots

This party’s name doesn’t even make me smile anymore, because it’s a funny name, but we do NOT want Trumpian politics here in Australia. We already get enough of it from the Libs, so for the love of all that’s good, don’t vote for these jokers.

Anyway, they don’t care about domestic violence. See the Trumpets’ website for all of their horrifically racist, sexist, ableist, homophobic, colonialist policies…

What next?

You know what to do – put your vote where it counts.

Want to hear more?

If you want an easy way to find out more about this issue and where the political parties stand, please listen to the 27 April episode 173 of the Serious Danger podcast. Emerald Moon interviews Amy Remeikis of the Australia Institute and they cover a lot of important points, as always.

Need help?

• DVConnect – 1800 811 811 or Mens line 1800 600 636 – provide emergency transport and accommodation for your entire family including pets. Also provide safety planning, crisis counselling, intervention, information and referrals at no cost to you
• BRISSC – 3391 2573 –  a community-based, not-for-profit organisation in Brisbane that provides support to women (15+) survivors of sexual violence.