The murder of women is an Australian scandal. So how do we defeat the monster tormenting our nation’s soul?

‘The social services minister, Amanda Rishworth, promised we would end violence against women ‘within a generation’ … Many, myself included, wondered whether we could dare to hope that this was possible.’ Photograph: Darren Pateman/AAP

This year alone, 19 women have been killed in Australia, according to the Australian Femicide Watch. The majority of those women, just like the 74 women murdered in 2023, were allegedly killed by someone known to them.

Fifty years ago a group of Sydney feminists broke into two adjoining vacant houses on the Glebe Estate in Sydney, “Elsie” and “Minnie”, to establish Australia’s very first domestic violence refuge.