Sexual Violence Reports Hit Record High, Then Barely Budge: What's the Government Doing About It?
Reports of sexual violence in Australia reached their highest level ever in 2024, before dipping less than 1% nationally in 2025, according to the annual domestic, family and sexual violence report released this week. Over the last 15 years, reported sexual violence has risen 64% (The Guardian, 9 September 2026).
Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek responded to the report's findings by reading to Parliament a letter she had received from a mother of three. The woman described being a parent today as "feeling like you're standing at the edge of a field watching something unfold." Plibersek has used parliamentary statements on this subject before. In October 2025, she delivered a Statement on a Significant Matter — a formal speech mechanism in the House of Representatives that allows a minister to draw attention to an issue of public importance — on the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission's yearly report, acknowledging victims and survivors and remembering the women and children who have been killed (Parliamentary Hansard, 30 October 2025).
The latest figures arrive amid a dense policy pipeline. On 30 August 2026, the Albanese Labor Government announced a new expert advisory council to guide Australia's mission to end domestic, family and sexual violence (ministers.dss.gov.au). The National Plan to End Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence now spans 2026–2036, and the Department of Social Services is running consultations connected to the Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2026 (AIHW FDSV summary; DSS consultations). A federal parliamentary committee, meanwhile, is conducting an inquiry into the relationship between DFSV victimisation and suicide (aph.gov.au).
The AIHW's data, last updated on its FDSV summary resource on 18 August 2026, fills in the picture behind the headline numbers. The burden falls heaviest on the youngest Australians. In 2024, 56% of recorded sexual assault victims had an age at incident under 18 years — roughly 22,400 victims. The sexual assault victimisation rate was highest among people aged 10–17, at 519 per 100,000 population (AIHW, police-reported sexual assault data published 18 August 2026; AIHW, child sexual abuse). Sixty per cent of women aged 15–17 had been sexually harassed at work in the previous five years, compared with 27% of women aged 50–64, according to the Australian Human Rights Commission (AIHW, young women).
Geography compounds vulnerability. The rate of family and domestic violence hospitalisations in 2024–25 was highest for people living in very remote areas (AIHW, factors associated with FDSV). A separate AIHW report published in May 2026 examined health service use among young people hospitalised due to family and domestic violence (AIHW, 7 August 2026).
The Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission — a body set up to advise government and advocate for victims and survivors — has been pressing the government to move beyond consultation with children and young people toward concrete action. In June 2026, the Commission published a media release titled "New report urges action for children and young people experiencing violence — not just listening," based on experiences shared with Plibersek and Assistant Minister for Social Services and Prevention of Family Violence Ged Kearney (DFSV Commission, 9 June 2026). Plibersek spoke on ending family, domestic and sexual violence at Labor's national conference in August, describing how too many women and children have been killed (Plibersek, 10 August 2026).
The figures present a familiar problem for the government. A 64% increase in reported sexual violence over 15 years, a record high in 2024, and a drop of less than 1% in 2025 is not a trajectory any minister wants to own. Plibersek's choice to read a constituent's letter rather than lead with statistics is a well-worn parliamentary device, and an effective one — it humanises an issue that risks becoming a data exercise. But the substance the mother in the letter was responding to is the data, and the data is barely moving. The expert advisory council announced on 30 August, the amendment bill in consultation, the parliamentary inquiry into victimisation and suicide, and the National Plan running through to 2036 are all process. Whether process becomes outcomes is the question that will dog this government, and the next one, for the remaining decade of the plan.
