Royal commission beneficial but more to be done, family violence survivors and experts say

Sarah Fardy was a victim of technology-facilitated domestic violence; Experts say this type of coercive control can often escalate to physical abuse.

During her six-week relationship with partner Jay Hart, Ms Fardy said she had prior knowledge of Mr Hart’s problems and wanted to be empathetic and supportive.

“I didn’t know at the time that giving him access would result in him watching everything I did,” Ms. Fardy said.

She said Mr Hart threatened to harm himself every time she asked him to leave and was aggressive, violent and controlling.

He forcibly controlled her until she told him she wasn’t allowed to talk to certain people or even order her own drinks from the bar.

After Mr Hart “pulled a knife on himself” and locked himself in his spare room, Ms Fardy told him to leave the house and seek advice from his sister, who worked at the workhouse.

It was also said that Mr Hart already had various protection orders against him.

“The police knew how dangerous he was. I will be forever grateful to that officer for what he did, for stepping in and acting,” Ms Fardy said.

Mr Hart, an English football player who was in Australia on a student visa, was deported after Ms Fardy and fellow victim Cara Greedy started a petition and gathered support; This led Home Secretary Tony Burke to cancel Mr Hart’s visa.

A royal commission into the deaths of women and children from domestic violence in Australia may not be the answer to stopping this heinous crime, domestic violence experts and survivors say.

According to the RED HEART Movement, 29 women and 11 children have been killed so far in 2026 as a result of “murder, manslaughter or neglect.”

Anthony Albanese was heavily criticized after appearing on radio in which he rejected calls for a royal commission into the deaths of women in Australia.

“What is your government doing to make a serious change in this country to eliminate this violence against women?” domestic violence survivor and advocate Christie Hayes asked the Prime Minister on HIT 100.9 Hobart’s breakfast radio show last week.

“There are calls for a royal commission into the whole thing,” Mr Albanese said, before Ms Hayes said “female deaths are quite significant”.

“Yes they are but you need to work out what the royal commission is doing alongside the fund lawyers,” Mr Albanese said.

“What we need here are solutions that we know. We know what they are, we know what’s needed here.”

Many accept the call for a royal commission, but others argue that the government already knows what it needs to do, but the point is to implement it correctly.

Monash Gender and Domestic Violence Prevention Center research fellow Jess Woolley said technology-facilitated domestic and family violence gave perpetrators access to their victims “anytime, anywhere”.

“Technology-facilitated domestic and family violence is strongly linked to different forms of violence, including physical abuse,” Dr Woolley said.

He added that there was a “significant risk” that this behavior could escalate into online and in-person harassment, increasing the risk of murder.

He also added that, as in the case of Ms Fardy, police played a “vital” role in protecting surviving victims.

Experts and advocates are divided on the idea of ​​setting up a royal commission but agree changes are needed.

Ms Fardy said developing a national framework was “really complex” and that recent calls for a royal commission and subsequent impeachment provided another opportunity to “continue the conversation”.

“The government has said they already know what is needed. I don’t think this is the end, it’s actually the beginning. There are still a few things that need to happen,” he said.

He said state-run royal commissions could form the basis of a wider national framework.

The Andrews government held a royal commission into domestic violence in 2015 and Dr Woolley said it could be used as inspiration for something similar across the country.

“We had a royal commission in Victoria that made 227 recommendations and they agreed to all of those recommendations by 2023,” he said.

“It provides an opportunity to highlight the systemic failures that we have. It can map ways to prevent domestic and family violence, improve support and hold perpetrators accountable… find the best ways to make everything work together in a holistic way.”

Malinauskas’ government set up its own royal commission in South Australia at the end of 2023, with commissioner Natasha Stott Despoja saying at the time that the support system in the state was “fragmented and siled”.

“Some of the systems we have may be completely isolated,” Dr Woolley acknowledged.

“Seeing that healthcare systems and domestic and family violence/policing systems do not necessarily connect and talk to each other can be a real challenge and can also require the victim to tell the story multiple times.

“If we had a more holistic understanding of how these systems work, how they cooperate and how they can cooperate better, among other things, a royal commission could be relatively useful.”