Domestic, family and sexual violence is a significant and often hidden driver of suicide risk in Australia. Women’s Legal Services Australia’s submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry highlights how system gaps across policing, courts, health and support services can re-traumatise and place women experiencing violence at even greater risk.
Many women avoid seeking help due to fears of not being believed, repercussions from authorities, or concerns that private counselling and health records will be accessed by perpetrators of violence and used against them.
The frontline experience of Women’s Legal Services is that male perpetrators of violence use threats or attempts of suicide as a tactic of coercive control—behaviour that is often not captured in risk assessments. When legal, policing and health systems don’t recognise or respond to these patterns, the consequences can be life‑threatening.
Despite recent inquiries, Australia lacks reliable, consistent national data showing when domestic, family and sexual violence contributes to suicide. This means opportunities for early intervention are missed, and the true scale of harm remains obscured.
WLSA has identified a number of high-level reforms needed to improve safety, strengthen accountability, and ensure women can get the help they need, including:
- Developing a national data and linkage framework to clearly identify when domestic, family and sexual violence contributes to suicide and to support effective prevention strategies.
- Embedding perpetrator suicide threats as a recognised indicator of coercive control within risk assessment and management tools.
- Implementing outstanding legal system reforms, including the Australian Law Reform Commission’s recommendations on justice responses to sexual violence.
- Investing in trauma‑informed, holistic and culturally safe services, especially for First Nations women, migrant and refugee women, LGBTIQA+ communities and women with disability.
- Strengthening protections for confidential counselling and health records, so victim‑survivors can seek therapeutic support without fear of inappropriate disclosure or misuse.