Two women and two girls were allegedly murdered in four days last week in Australia, prompting renewed calls for action on domestic and family violence. The deaths of Lavanya Chappa, Jana Armstrong, Layla Jeffery (13), and a 17-year-old Yolngu girl have been described as another crisis point, just eight weeks after a woman and two children were allegedly killed in Sydney.
Implementation Gap, Not Knowledge Gap
Katherine Berney, a policy expert on gender-based violence, stated: “We already have more than 1,000 recommendations. The knowledge gap isn’t there. There’s an implementation gap.” She emphasized that the problem is not a lack of ideas but a failure to act on existing advice.
Experts and advocates express frustration at the cycle of outrage and fatigue following each tragedy, with governments often failing to implement lasting reforms. A 2024 study of death review recommendations in Queensland and New South Wales found that only 16% had been properly enacted over more than a decade.
Performative Responses Questioned
Dr. Emma Buxton-Namisnyk, co-author of the study and senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales, questioned whether government responses are “performative,” aimed at managing public concern rather than effecting real change. She said: “It does worry me that there is a level of performativity in being seen to take these deaths seriously … but then defenestrating them by not actually implementing recommendations.”
Buxton-Namisnyk noted that governments prefer “populist announcements” but often lack sustained investment. “What is often missing is that really sustained investment out of the public purse, and that’s not a great announceable,” she added.
Queensland Cuts and Inaction
In Queensland, the alleged murder of Jana Armstrong in Toowoomba follows cuts of tens of millions in funding and resources to domestic violence response. Police have scrapped a specialist domestic and family violence command and deemed case management not “core business.” Key recommendations from an inquiry into police responses have not been enacted, and public reporting has stopped.
Margaret McMurdo, retired judge who chaired a state taskforce on women’s safety, told the Brisbane Times the government “seems to have abandoned” critical parts of the taskforce’s recommendations. “Meanwhile, our mothers, daughters, sisters and granddaughters continue to die from this continuing scourge of domestic and family violence,” she said.
Death Review Failures
Guardian Australia revealed last year that Queensland’s domestic and family violence death review advisory board had quietly stopped reviewing all cases. Former member Betty Taylor said the review had stopped centering women’s experiences: “We’ve got to listen to dead women.”
Berney noted that all states and territories have signed on to a national plan, but commitments have not been met. There is inconsistent data reporting, no government-backed homicide database, and no ongoing monitoring of national progress. “We can’t keep saying the same things. It’s utterly, utterly horrific … But if we only ever do crisis response, we only ever get crisis,” she said.
In Australia, domestic and family violence counselling is available from Full Stop Australia on 1800 385 578. In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women’s Aid. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org.
