There’s a national crisis of violence against women in Australia, as declared by the prime minister in 2024 and evidenced by the fact that in the very same week the Budget was handed down, more women were killed by violence.
Yet the 2025-26 Budget papers released on Tuesday did not include significant new spending for prevention mechanisms or the desperately underfunded frontline services that support victim survivors.
The Women’s Budget Statement included pages of information about the violence crisis and details of past investments, but announcements regarding meaningful new spending to address these issues were few and far between.
Violence is not the only crisis facing women in 2025 that didn’t get the attention it needed in this budget. But it’s a crisis that has left those in both prevention and response spaces disappointed.
No to Violence CEO Phillip Ripper said that if the government was serious about addressing the national family violence emergency, it should have included it in the budget. “But what we saw were previously announced commitments,” he said.
“This was called the ‘cost of living’ Budget. But the Budget ignored the cost of men’s family violence and the cost of women and children living in fear. That’s what tens of thousands of women and children are doing tonight.”
Safe and Equal also noted how this year’s budget provided little new investment needed to address Australia’s escalating family and gender-based violence crisis, including no new investment in services and interventions for those using violence.
“Victim survivors deserve better. Women and children deserve better. It’s disappointing that the Commonwealth Government decided to address the cost of beer rather than increase support for victim survivors,” Safe and Equal CEO Tania Farha said.
Poverty and homelessness
While this Budget firmly focused on cost-of-living relief, it did not recognise the significant impact the cost of living has on victim-survivors of violence.
“We know that during a financial crisis, rates of family and gender-based violence increase,” Farha said on this issue.
“Frontline services report spikes in demand, and dramatic increases in everyday costs make it even more difficult for victim survivors to safely escape abuse and recover.”
As for women on the poverty line, exacerbated by the growing cost of living crisis, there is the added disappointment of no increase to Jobseeker payments to help lift people out of poverty, despite billions being allocated for tax cuts that most Australians will barely notice.
As ACOSS CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie said, “We’re astounded that the centrepiece of tonight’s budget is more dollars for everyone except those with the least.”
While there was some tinkering around improving outcomes on housing and homelessness, the housing crisis requires much bolder solutions to address the issues facing women, especially given the link between homelessness anddomestic and family violence.
The ‘bikini health’ spending on women’s health
Meanwhile, there were some significant investments in health, and women’s health has stood out as a centrepiece of this budget. The Albanese government made positive steps in announcing a half-billion-dollar package in recent weeks, which was immediately matched by the Coalition as an election promise. It was also refreshing to hear Treasurer Jim Chalmers highlighting the importance of women’s health in his Budget speech last night.
The $793 million women’s health package covers new contraceptive pills and menopausal therapies to be added to the PBS, as well as support for endometriosis sufferers.
Yet the focus of these health measures is based on so-called “bikini health”, a medical term used to describe discussion in medicine which, as The George Institute for Health puts it, fails to address the full spectrum of health across a woman’s life, rather than when they are having a baby or going through menopause.
Where was the focus on health prevention for women, especially in terms of addressing chronic diseases like heart disease and dementia — the biggest killers of Australians?
Chronic conditions were recorded as an underlying or associated cause of death for 90 per cent of Australians in 2022 — and diabetes has increased 220 per cent in the past two decades in Australia — these are not “women’s health issues” specifically but the care required for those who fall sick, as well as the economic risk factors that contribute are additional burdens facing women. Women are also suffering from these conditions.
“The biggest killers of women are chronic diseases like heart disease, but risk factors and management of these diseases are really under-studied in women compared to in men,” said Professor Amanda Henry, Program Head of Women’s Health at The George Institute and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the Faculty of Medicine at UNSW Sydney.
Meanwhile, the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine President, Dr Rod Martin noted critical gaps in rural healthcare that have not been addressed, particularly the ongoing closure of rural maternity services. This too is a crisis for women and families, with more than 80,000 women giving birth outside of Australian cities every year, according to recent AIHW data. Yet rural maternity unit closures continue to occur. “Each closure weakens health in rural and remove communities just a little bit more,” Dr Martin said.
The climate crisis
Also missing is addressing the gendered impacts of the climate crisis — or anything to help address the climate crisis already facing Australians.
There’s evidence of an uptick in domestic and family violence post climate-related disasters in Australia, as well as additional risks of further poverty and homelessness for women affected.
Meanwhile, disasters are worsening the cost of living crisis, and become threat multipliers for vulnerable groups.
Climate Council CEO Amanda McKenzie noted that Australians are footing a $13.5 billion bill for worsening extreme weather fuelled by climate pollution. “Australians are concerned about both the rising costs of living and escalating costs of unnatural disasters driven by climate pollution from coal, oil and gas,” she said.
This is an election budget, rather than an ambitious platform for the future.
It puts ambition aside in favour of safer bets around minimum tax cuts and sweeteners. Will it be enough to see the Albanese Government elected for a second term, where the Government can put more effort into building a significant legacy of change? One that addresses early childhood reform, preventative health measures for women, the gendered impacts of housing affordability and climate disasters, and a real plan for ending violence against women and children?