Recommendation 16

The Commonwealth and state and territory governments to undertake an immediate audit of how DFSV perpetrators are weaponising government systems, and to respond to these findings. This audit and subsequent plans for reform should be informed by Safety by Design principles.

The Commonwealth Government should build on work that is already underway and prioritise systems where significant harm is occurring, such as: family law, child support, immigration, and taxation.

(Responsible Commonwealth portfolios: Prime Minister and Cabinet coordinating across all relevant portfolios)

Update as at 30 October 2025

On 6 September 2024, following National Cabinet, the Prime Minister announced the Government would immediately commence an audit of key Commonwealth systems to identify areas where they are being weaponised by perpetrators of family and domestic violence (lead agency: Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet).

• The audit, overseen by a Secretaries Working Group on Gender-Based Violence, is an ongoing mechanism to identify and address weaponisation of Commonwealth systems by perpetrators of family and domestic violence.
• As an immediate response to the audit, the Commonwealth Government has committed to embed safety in government systems and close financial abuse loopholes in the superannuation, tax and corporate, and social security systems.
• Further work is being done to consider how to strengthen the child support system against weaponisation, and to apply safety by design principles in systems design, operation and reform.
• The government has also committed to consult on changes to tax and social security law so that perpetrators, not victim-survivors, are accountable for debts they accrue through financial abuse.
• The Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Technical Changes No. 2) Bill 2025 was introduced into the House of Representatives on 4 September 2025. The Bill allows Services Australia to better account for circumstances like coercion or financial abuse when administering the special circumstances debt waiver. This builds on the election commitment to embed safety in Commonwealth systems and ensure the social security system cannot be weaponised against women experiencing violence.

Recommendation 17

The Commonwealth and state and territory governments to work with industries that are well positioned to prevent and reduce DFSV, including homicide, with a focus on alcohol and gambling industries, in addition to media and pornography. This includes reviewing and strengthening alcohol and gambling regulatory environments to prioritise the prevention of gender-based violence. This should include:

1. adopting clear primary objectives in state and territory liquor regulatory regimes to prevent gender-based violence, alongside existing objectives around alcohol harm reduction (states and territories);
2. restrictions on alcohol sales, delivery timeframes (states and territories) and advertising (Commonwealth and states and territories);
3. stronger restrictions leading to a total ban on advertising of gambling (Commonwealth and states and territories);
4. examining the density of electronic gaming machines, and use of online gambling, in relation to the prevalence of DFSV across different populations and communities (Commonwealth and states and territories);
5. establishing and embedding national standards for media reporting on gender-based violence (Commonwealth); and
6. ensuring the age-verification pilot for online pornography tests both the technology, and how age verification assurance systems will be implemented, including the participation of the major technology platforms used by Australian children.

Further, the Review recommends that the Commonwealth Government work with the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) and other organisations on a framework to ensure the development of an integrated and focused effort to address the role of alcohol in DFSV.

(Responsible Commonwealth portfolio/s: Health, Communications)

Update as at 30 October 2025

On 6 September 2024, National Cabinet agreed to a package of practical next steps, including efforts to address the role that systems and harmful industries play in exacerbating violence.

• This included providing $1.0 million to update the National framework for action to prevent alcohol-related family violence, developed by the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) in 2015 (lead agency: Department of Health, Disability and Ageing).

Age assurance technology trial (lead agency: Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts).

• In late 2024, the Parliament of Australia made amendments to the Online Safety Act 2021 to introduce a social media minimum age framework, which will take effect from 10 December 2025.
  • Under this legislation, age-restricted social media platforms must take reasonable steps to prevent Australians under 16 from having social media accounts, with a view to protecting young people from the harms associate with social media use.
  • In August 2025, the Government published a final report of the independent Age Assurance Technology Trial, which found age assurance technology is effective in protecting young Australians from explicit and age-inappropriate content online.
  • In September 2025, the eSafety Commission released regulatory guidance for the online industry on reasonable steps to comply with the Social Media Minimum Age obligation.

Recommendation 18

The Commonwealth Government to continue to support the eSafety Commissioner to undertake increasingly complex work preventing gender-based violence, which includes working with the technology industry on the improvement of policies, practices and accountability.

(Responsible Commonwealth portfolio/s: Communications, Attorney-General’s, Social Services)

Update as at 30 October 2025

At the National Cabinet meeting on 1 May 2024, the Commonwealth Government announced it will deliver a range of new measures to tackle factors that exacerbate violence against women, such as violent online pornography, and misogynistic content targeting children and young people. This commitment was reiterated at the 6 September 2024 National Cabinet meeting.

Legislative changes

• On 12 September 2024, the Government introduced the Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2024 to outlaw the malicious release of personal data online, or ‘doxxing’. The Act came into force on 10 December 2024 (lead agency: Attorney-General’s Department).
• On 8 November 2024, National Cabinet agreed to the Commonwealth legislated a minimum age of 16 to access social media. The Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024 was passed by Parliament on 29 November 2024, requiring social media platforms to prevent Australians under the age of 16 years from having social media accounts through age verification of users. The requirements will come into effect on 10 December 2025 (lead agency: Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts).
• On 2 September 2025, the Government announced that it will work to restrict access to nudification apps and undetectable stalking tools, engaging closely with industry on how best to achieve this (lead agency: Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts).

Industry codes (lead agency: eSafety Commissioner)

• From 1 October 2024, a voluntary online dating industry code came into operation for online dating platforms, which establishes safeguards to reduce the risk of online enabled harm to users of dating services operating in Australia. On 1 April 2025, the industry code became subject to enforcement.
• On 30 July 2025, the eSafety Commissioner registered three new industry codes submitted by the online industry, creating safeguards to protect children from exposure to pornography, violent content, and themes of suicide, self-harm and disordered eating. Once in place, the new codes support efforts dealing with the highest-harm online material, such as child sexual abuse material and pro-terror content.

Project funding (lead agency: eSafety Commissioner)

• On 24 July 2025, the eSafety Commissioner awarded $3.5 million to 10 new projects under the Commonwealth’s $10 million Preventing Tech‑based Abuse of Women Grants Program. This includes a dedicated First Nations funding stream and targeted investments for the prevention of abuse of women with disability, culturally and linguistically diverse women, and LGBTIQ+ women.
  • Six of the projects will directly engage boys and men, addressing the influence of misogynistic online narratives on teenage boys and involving men in the co-design of prevention resources.