The story of Sophie Quinn, the 25-year-old pregnant woman allegedly shot dead by her ex-partner, along with two others in January, has devastated the small NSW town of Lake Cargelligo and, indeed, the state.
Hers is among nine deaths due to violence against women in Australia already this year, according to the Counting Dead Women tally from feminist organisation Destroy The Joint. Fifty-three such deaths occurred in 2025, according to their count.
The figures are shocking. As is the lack of investment in services to reduce them, as the sector cries out for more resources.
A report by peak body Domestic Violence NSW published last month highlighted widespread shortages in the sector, which are affecting victim-survivors’ access to support.
In the same time that its workforce has fallen by 12 per cent, demand has surged by 22 per cent. The organisation warned that services were supporting 150 per cent more clients than they are funded for, and two in three new referrals were unable to be immediately assigned to a caseworker, with one in four placed on a waitlist.
As Clare Sibthorpe reports in today’s Sun-Herald, the peak body holds further concerns about a lack of co-operation between different services – both in the justice system, and through the health sector – in providing support for people experiencing domestic violence, where different entry points for those needing support “work in silos”, unable to see the full picture.
In October last year, federal Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek announced a national inquiry into the relationship between domestic, family and sexual violence, and suicide.
An Australian Institute of Health and Welfare analysis of national datasets, included in its submission to the inquiry, found there were more deaths, and deaths by suicide, among people with a recorded experience of family, domestic and sexual violence compared with those without.
The inquiry’s chief concern is examining this trend. But what should be done to approach situations such as those faced by Kat in today’s story, where perpetrators use suicide and threats of suicide, is also within its terms of reference.
As Sibthorpe reports, a 2021 Australian Institute of Criminology study found 39 per cent of women who had experienced coercive control reported their partner had threatened to self-harm.
Domestic Violence NSW (DVNSW) senior policy and advocacy officer Angie Gehle is right to acknowledge the complexity in approaching this as a red flag for coercive control: a perpetrator’s suicide ideation could be a legitimate cry for help. But the context that will allow a social worker, doctor or court to determine that will only be available if these services are all trained on these matters, and talking to each other.
A more integrated approach across multiple sectors – healthcare services, including local GPs as a possible point of first contact, education, so that policies focused on prevention might be implemented, as well as justice and social services – is essential to navigate these nuances.
National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1800 RESPECT
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