“There is a chronic lack of funding to provide domestic and family violence crisis services. Having to tell a woman or a mother with children to wait, knowing full well that ‘waiting’ in her situation could mean going back to a dangerous situation with the perpetrator. This is the reality we face every day.”
– DVNSW member service, 2025
Domestic and family violence causes significant physical, emotional, psychological and financial harm to those who experience it – leading to homelessness or even death. In 2024, 25 women were reported murdered in NSW as a result of domestic and family violence (Destroy the Joint 2025). This was the highest toll in nine years.
We know that domestic violence-related assault is going up three per cent per year on average (BOSCAR 2024). We know that domestic and family violence is the most common form of child abuse, impacting one in four Australian children and young people (Haslam et al 2023). We know that domestic and family violence is the leading cause of homelessness for women and children (AIHW 2024b).
Further, the impacts of domestic and family violence are all encompassing – impacting the NSW economy and state budget, and the sectors of justice, corrections, police, health, housing, homelessness, community services, education, women, mental health, child protection, and services for children and young people.
As such, Domestic Violence NSW calls on the NSW Government to continue to work with the specialist domestic and family violence sector to achieve our vision to end violence against women and children.
This submission recommends actions for the NSW Government in three priority areas that will provide immediate support, as well as the investments required for long-term change:
- A core funding increase for specialist services
- Meeting the demand for services
- Supporting sector reform
As a key priority for the NSW Budget 2026-27, Domestic Violence NSW is seeking a 50 per cent core funding increase for all specialist domestic and family violence services funded by the Department of Communities and Justice.
“I’ve been a domestic and family violence service manager for over 20 years, and I can honestly say the current funding level is appalling for the work we do… We need urgent action from Government to right this financial inequality before services go under.”
– DVNSW member service, 2025
A core funding increase for specialist domestic and family violence services has remained absent in state budgets to date. The high levels of unmet demand for domestic and family violence services in NSW reflects a significant underinvestment in specialist domestic and family services.
Turning a woman or child away from a specialist domestic and family violence service can mean life or death. To keep women and children safe, our workers are picking up excessive client loads at risk to their own psychological health and safety. They are responding to the crisis with unpaid overtime, fundraising on top of their paid work, and paying for food vouchers out of their own pockets. To effectively respond to women and children experiencing violence, it is critical for frontline services to have sufficient government resourcing to effectively meet demand.
This submission presents evidence-based funding priorities to the NSW Government, derived from consultations and surveys conducted with our members, sector engagement, analysis of the latest research, and two Domestic Violence NSW commissioned research reports on unmet demand (Equity Economics 2025, Impact Economics and Policy 2024).
The recommendations build on our ongoing engagement with the Premier, the Treasurer, the Attorney General, the Minister for the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, the Minister for Housing and Minister for Homelessness, and the NSW Department of Communities and Justice.
The recommended priorities aim to reduce the financial and social costs of domestic and family violence, to the benefit of women, children and the broader NSW community, and are clearly aligned with the NSW Performance and Wellbeing Framework wellbeing themes of:
- Housed – quality housing conditions are sufficient and affordable, places are well-designed and sustainable, and vulnerable people have access to suitable housing.
- Secure – communities are safe, people have access to justice and protection under the law, and children and families are safe and supported.
