2025 statistics show that NSW has once again recorded the highest number of women murdered in domestic and family violence over the last twelve months, with specialist DFV services reporting an average wait of two months for support.
Domestic Violence NSW, the peak body for specialist domestic and family violence (DFV) services in the state, says the NSW government can no longer ignore calls for a 50 per cent increase to core funding for the DFV sector, as services are at crisis point and women and children are being turned away from life-saving support.
Demand for support to manage, leave and recover from domestic and family violence continues to rise.
With NSW once again recording the highest number of women killed in a domestic violence context in the country, DVNSW says the failure to invest in frontline services, many of which have not received an increase to their base operational funding in more than a decade, is placing lives at risk.
Untenable
Delia Donovan, CEO of DVNSW, said the situation is untenable and requires immediate government action.
‘In early 2025, our members reported average wait times of up to two months for people seeking support. This is essential work and for some women and children, it’s the difference between life and death.
‘Imagine the public outcry if there were a two-month wait to be treated in an Emergency Department. Where is that same urgency when women and children are trying to access safety?’ Ms Donovan asked.
Specialist DFV workers report that many services are being kept afloat through unpaid overtime, fundraising, and staff covering basic costs out of their own pockets. As referral rates continue to climb, DVNSW warns that goodwill is being relied on to prop up a sector stretched beyond capacity.
‘For more than five years, we have consistently called for a 50 per cent increase to baseline funding so frontline services can meet demand, retain skilled workers, and provide safety and healing to those in crisis.
‘This call is backed by researchers, experts, workers and victim-survivors – yet successive governments have failed to listen and act,’ Ms Donovan said.
The crisis is even more severe in regional and remote NSW, where modelling shows some services require up to 8.94 times their current funding simply to remain operational.
‘The data is clear and the solutions are known. What’s missing is political will,’ she said. ‘NSW is the wealthiest and most well-resourced state in the country, yet women and children are being forced to return to violence because we cannot commit just 0.1 per cent of the state budget to properly fund the services that save their lives.’
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