The Cost of Violence against women and their children 

8.1 Summary of findings

Table 17 summarises administrative and other costs in 2021-22 resulting from domestic violence against women and their children.

Without the Plan of Action interventions, administrative and other costs are estimated at $555 million in 2021-22. For every woman whose experience of violence is prevented as a result of the Plan of Action, $1,441 in administrative and other costs can be avoided. This equates to $56 million in reduced costs if levels of violence could be reduced by just 10 per cent by 2021-22.

8.2 Category description

This category includes legal system costs (such as incarceration, court system and private legal costs), temporary accommodation costs, and other costs (such as counselling, perpetrator programs, and imputed carer costs). Access Economics estimated total administrative and other costs were $480 million in 2002-03⁵⁷.

8.3 Cost and stakeholder breakdown

Without appropriate action to address violence against women and their children, administrative and other costs could reach $555 million in 2021-22. The main contributions to these costs are likely to be legal system costs at 58 per cent of total costs, followed by other administrative costs (counselling, perpetrator programs etc) at 22 per cent, and temporary accommodation at 20 per cent.

Without appropriate action to address violence against women and their children, administrative and other costs in 2021-22 will be borne primarily by government at $500 million (90 per cent) and the community at $46 million (8 per cent of the total costs).

8.4 Plan of Action priorities

The Plan of Action advocates a range of initiatives which will have a particular impact on administrative costs. These include:

• establishing a reference for the Australian Law Reform Commission to examine present state/territory domestic and family violence and child protection legislation and federal family law, and propose solutions to ensure that these laws work together to protect women and their children from violence.
• establishing a mechanism to enable the automatic national registration of domestic and family violence protection orders and subsequent variations, adaptations and modifications occurring anywhere in Australia or New Zealand.
• establishing or build on emerging homicide/fatality review processes in all states and territories to review deaths that result from domestic and family violence so as to identify factors leading to these deaths, improve system responses and respond to service gaps.
• commissioning the production of a model Bench Book, in consultation with jurisdictions and as part of a national professional development program for judicial officers on sexual assault and domestic and family violence.
• continuing to trial and evaluate supplementary legal processes in the area of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family violence and sexual assault, such as restorative justice, which are driven by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
  

56. All figures are in 2007-08 dollars.
57. Access Economics, The Cost of Domestic Violence to the Australian Economy: Part I and Access Economics, The Cost of Domestic Violence to the Australian Economy: Part II, 2004, viewed December 2008, p. 54 and 57-58.