You can’t fix what ain’t broke:

Despite hard‑fought progress — including the Victorian Government’s recent decision to remove character references for people convicted of violent crimes after years of advocacy by survivors — the barriers to justice for women and children remain deeply entrenched. Women and girls still face extraordinary hurdles to being believed, let alone supported to pursue justice and accountability for the harm they have experienced.[1]

A crucial first step is reframing how we describe systemic abuse and sytems of oppression that cause harm. Phrases such as “falling through the cracks” obscure the reality of the barriers and inequalities experienced. They imply that the system works as intended, if only victim-survivors could navigate it correctly. But how can that be true when the very systems they turn to for protection were built in ways that deny fair and equitable access for women and girls?

Let’s be honest: no one “falls through the cracks.” The cracks are part of the design.

Deeply embedded biases, systemic oppression, and racism cannot be remedied with short-term fixes. Ensuring fair, inclusive, and accessible justice for every woman and girl requires confronting the uncomfortable truth that these systems were built to uphold the rights of men, predominantly cis, white men. They were constructed on a foundation of colonial oppression — and the consequences of that legacy are profound.

We see this most devastatingly for First Nations women and children. National data shows the over representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women with one in three experiencing family and/or sexual violence at the hands of an intimate partner. First Nations women are also more likely to be mis-identified as the primary aggressor in the very systems purported to protect women from harm. This is despite the evidence: First Nations women are 34 times more likely to be hospitalised and 11 times more likely to die from violence than non-Indigenous women in Australia.[2] Family violence is also driving the rapidly increasing incarceration of First Nations women and is a leading cause of child removal into out of home care.[3]

These harms are not isolated incidents; they are part of a longstanding pattern of violence and systemic discrimination that has shaped First Nations experience since colonisation.

It remains true that the police force, the legal system and the judiciary are not specifically designed to deal with violence against women and children.[4]

Victim survivors’ attempts to seek safety and accountability are shaped by these broader forces of gender inequality, racism, and systemic bias. Engagement with the policing and legal system is all too often met with skepticism, delegitimisation, and disbelief — and the data reflects this troubling reality.[5]

A major 2025 Australian Law Reform Commission inquiry found that only 8% of women who are sexually assaulted report to police.[6] Of those reports, up to 85% never result in a charge, and even fewer proceed to court. Survivors frequently described their experience with police and courts as more traumatic than the violence itself, citing disbelief, poor communication, and re‑traumatisation during the process.

Last financial year, the vast majority of family violence incidents attended by police did not result in immediate protection for victim survivors or a Family Violence Safety Notice (FVSN).[7] In Greater Bendigo, more than 91% of incidents did not result in immediate protective action by police .[8] Increased police powers to apply immediate protection through FVSN, provides a stronger justice response and immediate safety — yet they are not being used.[9]

When this data is cross‑analysed with the type of violence reported, a pattern emerges: risk is too often unrecognised when physical or sexual violence is not present. Emotional and verbal abuse — along with often invisible tactics are patterns of coercive control and the strongest predictor of lethality in family violence homicides — making up more than 70% of police ‑attended incidents.[10]

Similarly, when victim-survivors themselves apply for Family Violence Intervention Orders (FVIOs), fewer than half are successfully granted, compared with just over 80% when police make the application.[11] This raises critical questions not only about why victim survivors are disbelieved when they seek protection, but also why perpetrators are believed and what the threshold for risk is — especially in a context where policy and legislation clearly identify family violence as a gendered crime.[12]

Systems harm extends far beyond policing and judicial responses to family and sexual violence. It is often realised through weaponisation by the perpetrator through what is known as ‘systems abuse’ — another tactic of coercive control. It is the deliberate misuse of government systems such as Child Support, Child Protection, and Family Law to intimidate, threaten, and harm victim-survivors.[13] It is pervasive, particularly within the Family Court where the legal system continues to disbelieve women and validate abusers.[14]

Each year, around 22,000 families navigate the Federal Circuit and Family Court system for parenting and property matters. In 2022–23, more than 84% of cases involved allegations of family violence, including risks to children.[15] Yet the Family Court continues to assert that it is not part of a family violence response — even as it routinely sidelines the voices of children, young people, and mothers, including in cases involving allegations of child abuse and child sexual abuse.[16]

Research by Death J et al. (2019) highlights that the Family Court has a troubling pattern of characterising mothers as vindictive or malicious when they raise concerns about abuse, rather than recognising potential harm or risk to children.[17]

There can be no justice where inequality persists. And there can be no accountability where systems abuse is enabled — or indeed replicated — by the system itself.

To balance the scales, we must first dismantle systems of inequality and oppression.

A transformed legal and justice system must recognise the equality and rights to justice and accountability of all people. It must prevent harm earlier and hold those who use violence accountable. Transformation is not only necessary — it is entirely possible.

It begins by believing women.

This International Women’s Day, we echo the call of ANROWS CEO, Tessa Boyd‑Caine:

“Inequality is built into systems […] it can be dismantled.”

Let’s get to work.

[1] See for example: Reeves E, Fitz-Gibbon K, Meyer S and Walklate S 2023. ‘Incredible Women: Legal Systems Abuse, Coercive Control and the Credibility of Victim-Survivors’, Violence Against Women, pp. 1-22

[2] Safe and Equal 2025. ‘Supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People’. Available from: https://safeandequal.org.au/working-in-family-violence/tailored-inclusive-support/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-people/#:~:text=3%20in%205%20Aboriginal%20and,by%20a%20male%20intimate%20partner. [Accessed: 5 February]

[3][3] See: Australian Human Rights Commission 2022. Wiyi Yani U Thangani (Women’s Voices): First Nations Women’s Safety Policy Forum Outcomes Report’, November 2022.

[4] See for example: National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022-2032. Available from: National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032 [accessed: 5 March 2026]

[5] Reeves E, Fitz-Gibbon K, Meyer S and Walklate S 2023. ‘Incredible Women: Legal Systems Abuse, Coercive Control and the Credibility of Victim-Survivors’, Violence Against Women, p. 2

[6] Australian Government 2025. ‘Safe, Informed, Supported: Reforming Justice Responses to Sexual Violence, Australian Law Reform Commission, January. Available from: alrc.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/JRSV-Final-Report-Book-for-Web-final-20250211.pdf [accessed: 5 March 2026]

[7] For further information visit: Victorian Government 2026. ‘Family Violence Dashboard’. Available from: https://www.crimestatistics.vic.gov.au/family-violence-data/family-violence-dashboard [accessed: 4 March 2026]

[8] Victorian Government 2026. ‘Incident Details 2024-2025: Greater Bendigo’, available from: https://www.crimestatistics.vic.gov.au/family-violence-data/family-violence-dashboard [accessed: 4 March 2026]

[9] Victorian Government 2026. ‘Family Violence Safety Notices’, Victoria Legal Aid, 19 February. Available from: https://www.legalaid.vic.gov.au/family-violence-safety-notices [Accessed: 4 March 2026]

[10] Victorian Government 2026. ‘Incident Details 2024-2025: Greater Bendigo’, available from: https://www.crimestatistics.vic.gov.au/family-violence-data/family-violence-dashboard [accessed: 4 March 2026]

[11] Victorian Government 2026. ‘Family Violence Intervention Orders’, available from: https://www.crimestatistics.vic.gov.au/family-violence-data/family-violence-dashboard [Accessed: 4 March 2026]

[12] Reeves E, Fitz-Gibbon K, Meyer S and Walklate S 2023. ‘Incredible Women: Legal Systems Abuse, Coercive Control and the Credibility of Victim-Survivors’, Violence Against Women, p. 2

[13] DV Alert 2025. ‘Understanding Systems Abuse’, 25 August. Available from: https://www.dvalert.org.au/about/news-blog/understanding-systems-abuse#:~:text=Following%20the%20National%20Cabinet%20meeting,manipulated%20to%20further%20harm%20someone. [Accessed: 5 February 2026]

[14] Reeves E, Fitz-Gibbon K, Meyer S and Walklate S 2023. ‘Incredible Women: Legal Systems Abuse, Coercive Control and the Credibility of Victim-Survivors’, Violence Against Women, pp. 1-22

[15] Australian Government 2025. ‘Legal Systems’, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Available from: https://www.aihw.gov.au/family-domestic-and-sexual-violence/responses-and-outcomes/legal-systems#:~:text=Family%20courts,property%20orders%20in%202022%E2%80%9323.&text=A%20Notice%20of%20Child%20Abuse,the%20proceedings%20(FCFCOA%202024). [Accessed: 5 February 2026]

[16] Death J, Ferguson C and Burgess K 2019. ‘Parental alienation, coaching and the best interests of the child: Allegations of child sexual abuse in the Family Court of Australia’, in Child Abuse and Neglect, Vol.94. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.104045Get rights and content [Accessed: 5 February 2026]

[17] Ibid.