Victorian Premier Ben Carroll has pledged to legislate tougher penalties for family, domestic and sexual violence perpetrators that would see a maximum penalty of life imprisonment for rape introduced.
The raft of new laws will be introduced if the Carroll government is re-elected in November, and will include an increase to the maximum penalties for all serious sexual offences by five years.
Offenders who murder their current or former partner will also face a standard sentence of 30 years, up from 25 years.
And in an Australian-first, Carroll has committed his governement to introducing a new form of manslaughter to include where a victim of domestic violence has been driven to suicide. Research has shown women who experienced domestic and family violence are three times more likely to attempt suicide.
There will also be a new offence to cover when a perpetrator abandons a victim in medical need, a change recommended by the Coroner. The government cited the stories of two Victorian women, Narelle Simmons and Belinda Jones, who were abandoned by their abusive partners while in urgent medical need and died.
“I’m a tough-on-crime Premier – and that means being tough on family and sexual violence,” Carroll said.“We must act on the violence that is killing a Victorian woman every two weeks.”
The Victorian government also confirmed, if re-elected, it would change the laws so that courts can consider patterns of sexual abuse as evidence at trial. It would also make changes so that barristers cannot use humiliating and invasive questioning techniques.
“These changes will hold perpetrators to account and set the standard for what Victorians will never tolerate,” Attorney-General and Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence Sonya Kilkenny said.
The announcement comes as 52 Australian women have been killed by violence so far in 2026, accoridng to Sherele Moody’s Australian Femicide Watch.
Feature image: Victorian Premier Ben Carroll and Attorney-General and Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence Sonya Kilkenny.