2024-2025 Annual Report

Last year, 69 women were killed by intimate partners in Australia, a 35% increase. Twenty percent were Aboriginal women. We are 3.8% of the population.

This week we published EMH's annual report. We supported over 400 women and their families this year. We opened Winyah's Hub after fighting for decades to get full control of our own property. The independent evaluation of our Aboriginal Healing Unit at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre shows measurable improved outcomes across five dimensions of wellbeing and recovery.

But we aren't celebrating.

Every number in our report represents a woman who shouldn't have needed us in the first place. Every positive outcome happened despite systems designed to work against our women.

Police still misidentify our women as perpetrators of violence when they're defending themselves. Crisis accommodation still means unsafe motels. Recovery programs that work get pilot funding then disappear. Housing waitlists stretch for years while women and their children cycle through unsafe options.

We're taking part in 16 Days of activism. These 16 days asks us what we're doing to end violence. Here's what needs to happen:

• Fund Aboriginal women to lead prevention and recovery.

• Stop making our women jump through hoops designed for someone else's idea of who deserves support.

• Recognise housing as a safety outcome and fund pathways accordingly.

• Name systemic and institutional violence for what it is and create real accountability.

• Invest in true Aboriginal data sovereignty so outcomes, monitoring, and evidence reflect lived realities. Recognise our women as knowledge holders and respect their ownership over their experiences and journeys — not as subjects of external research or institutional ownership.

We know what works. In 2026, we'll have been doing it for 50 years. The question is whether the people holding power in these systems are ready to listen and properly resource it.

Read our full annual report here: