This is the story of four major political parties’ commitment to ending violence against women (VAW).

The Australian Labor Party (ALP) has costed its manifesto promises; the Australian Greens (the Greens) and the National Party of Australia (the Nationals) have made promises, but not costed them; and the Liberal Party of Australia (the Liberals) has promised little, and costed even less.

The ‘Teal’ independents are not a political party with a manifesto so we can’t easily evaluate their commitments; though Zoe Daniel (Goldstein, Victoria), has asked why the major parties are not talking about VAW in this election campaign: “We have a national plan that needs to be adequately funded.”

Eliminating VAW is a national priority. One in five women have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15, and one in three report having experienced physical violence. Last year alone, there were 37 women murdered by their intimate partner. These figures are devastating. But sadly, not unusual in Australia (or other parts of the world, for that matter). Driving down these figures should be a priority for national political parties and leaders.

After the surge of public interest in combating VAW, including the development of a National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children over the next decade, we might expect that VAW would feature in political parties’ promises during the upcoming election.

So, we sought to find out what the commitments of each major party are to end VAW in the lead up to 3 May, 2025 to see if those expectations are born out. We searched for any policies mentioning VAW included in the current election plans for each political party, as well as exploring party websites and media releases.