26 Women Dead in 2024: Thousands Demand Action on Gendered Violence

At least 26 women have been killed in Australia so far this year—a toll that sparked thousands to march through city streets and regional towns over the weekend, demanding governments declare gendered violence a national emergency.

The rallies, organized by advocacy group What Were You Wearing, stretched across more than a dozen locations. They began on Friday in Ballarat and Newcastle, expanded on Saturday to major demonstrations in Sydney, Adelaide and Hobart, and continued on Sunday across Melbourne, Bendigo, Geelong, Coffs Harbour, Wagga Wagga, Orange, Perth, the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Brisbane and Canberra.

The scale of participation and political response signals a potential shift in momentum. Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, NSW Premier Chris Minns and federal MP Sophie Scamps joined crowds in Sydney on Saturday. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attended Sunday's Canberra event. Sarah Williams, CEO of What Were You Wearing, used the platform to press the government directly.

"I'm hoping he will name this as a national emergency and changes will be made," Ms Williams said from the rally stage.

The momentum comes after a grim succession of high-profile cases. Ballarat has been reeling from three alleged killings within two months: Samantha Murphy, Rebecca Young and Hannah McGuire, each killed allegedly by men they knew. Two weeks before the rallies, five people were killed in a single stabbing attack at Bondi Junction shopping centre when Queensland man Joel Cauchi attacked shoppers at random—Jade Young, 47; Ashlee Good, 38; Dawn Singleton, 25; Pikria Darchia, 55; and Yixuan Cheng, 27.

This week alone has seen additional deaths: Molly Ticehurst, 28, was found dead at her home in Forbes in New South Wales, and Emma Bates, 49, was discovered dead at a property in Cobram, Victoria. On Friday, a 30-year-old woman in Perth was killed, with police taking a man in his 30s into custody.

Crowds chanted slogans that reflected years of advocacy frustration: "When our right to safety is under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back" and "whatever we wear, wherever we go, yes means yes and no means no."

What Were You Wearing's platform set five core demands: governments must declare gendered violence a national emergency and fund all domestic, family and sexual violence services for at least five years. The group also wants alternative reporting options for victims, specialist courts dedicated to violence cases, and better training for first responders. Media outlets should wait at least 48 hours before publishing victim images and avoid victim-blaming narratives, advocates say.

The breadth of geographic mobilization—spanning from regional Victoria to regional Western Australia—reflects how deeply the issue has penetrated public consciousness and frustration with the pace of policy change.

The government's visible engagement matters. Mr Albanese's attendance at the Canberra rally signals the possibility of a different political response than incremental reviews and pilot programs. Advocates point to how COVID triggered intensive national coordination: daily press conferences, constant national cabinet meetings, expert consultation and major investment. They argue gendered violence demands the same emergency-level resourcing and top prioritization, not another agenda item on a crowded national list.

Whether the weekend's momentum translates into structural change remains to be seen. But the scale of death in just four months—and the scale of public response—makes dismissing the issue harder than it has been.