The number of women killed by an intimate partner was rising sharply even before the recent spate of deaths sparked outrage and protests across the country.
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The number of women murdered by former or current partners rose by 28 per cent in the year to June 2023, the latest Homicide in Australia report shows as the prime minister prepares to convene an urgent meeting of the nation's leaders.
Released by the Australian Institute of Criminology on Tuesday, it found 16 per cent of all homicides in 2022/23 were carried out by a current or former intimate partner.
Of those, 89 per cent of all victims of intimate partner homicides were women.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will meet state and territory leaders at a virtual national cabinet on Wednesday to discuss preventative measures for violence against women.
The family and sexual violence commissioner has been invited to make a presentation at the specially convened cabinet.
The meeting will examine measures to strengthen prevention and focus on online harms, including countering violent and misogynistic content.
Further opportunities for states and the Commonwealth to share information about high-risk perpetrators and serial offenders will also be examined.
"This is not a women's issue, it is a national crisis and we have to take responsibility for addressing it as a nation," Mr Albanese said.
"It is not enough to support victims, or mourn them - we need to focus on the perpetrators and on prevention."
Early Childhood Minister Anne Aly, who is a domestic violence survivor, says the statistics remain alarming.
There have been calls to classify violence against women as a form of terrorism and Dr Aly says the comparison is apt.
"For the women who are in that situation it is terrifying, and it is terror, and I've heard stories of women who have had to move from place," she told ABC Radio on Tuesday.
"For the women who are being terrorised, it is very much violence, terrorism, control."
Industry Minister Ed Husic says the upcoming national cabinet meeting will be a significant step forward.
"This is absolutely a national crisis, too many women have not only lost their lives this year but in previous years as well," he told ABC TV.
"It is a shameful roll call, and we all need to step up."
At widespread rallies across the country on the weekend thousands of people called for further action from the government, adding urgency to the situation.
Australian Institute of Criminology deputy director Rick Brown said the overall homicide rate in the country was four per cent higher in 2022/23 than the previous year.
Women killed by an intimate partner increased by 28 per cent.
The institute's report also found 49 per cent of all female homicide victims in the past financial year were killed by their current or former intimate partner.
Of the 69 women killed in homicides where the offender was known, 17 per cent were killed by another family member.
"Female victims were much less likely than male victims to be killed by an acquaintance or by a stranger," the report said.
Despite the rise in overall homicides, the 2022/23 rate marked a 52 per cent reduction compared to 1989/90.
There were 232 homicide incidents, with 247 victims and 260 offenders, in the past financial year.
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Australian Associated Press
