Ballarat Council is the first local government to support my call for a Royal Commission into the Killing of Australian Women and Girls.
Mayor Tracey Hargreaves put forward a motion for the council to call on the federal government to establish an independent national inquiry to examine the systemic and cultural drivers of gender-based violence.
Cr Hargreaves said femicide toll demanded urgent structural intervention rather than passive mourning, the Ballarat Courier reports.
“I’ve brought this notice of motion because the killing of women and girls in this country is a national failure,” Cr Hargreaves said.
“Speaking about gendered violence is not easy, but women in this community deserve a council that is prepared to have that conversation.”
I started the campaign for a royal commission on January 24, 2026. Already this year we have lost 58 women and 11 girls to acts of violence.
We also lose seven women a week to suicide following domestic violence and/or sexual assault. And then we have at least one suspicious death a week misidentified as self-harm, misadventure or accident.
My count shows one woman or girl dying every four days but taking into account the suicides and misidentified deaths, I believe we lost at the least one woman every day to violence.
And yet the federal, state and territory governments fail to properly acknowledge the scale of the gendered violence epidemic, meaning we do not get sufficient funding, services or policy to keep women and girls alive.
Ballarat has shown the way. Now we need every council in Australia to follow.
👉 HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN DO TODAY (IT TAKES 2 MINUTES):
Email your mayor and councillors. Ask them to pass a motion like Ballarat’s. Use the template below and add your name, suburb and one line about why this matters to you. Personal emails get read. Copy-and-paste ones get filtered
Subject: Will [council name] follow Ballarat and call for a Royal Commission into Femicide?
Dear Mayor and Councillors,
My name is [name], and I live in [suburb].
On 28 October, the City of Ballarat unanimously passed a motion calling on the federal government to establish a Royal Commission into the Killing of Women and Girls. They are now writing to the Prime Minister and the Minister for Women.
So far this year, 58 Australian women have been killed. More than 175,000 people have signed the national petition calling for a Royal Commission.
I am asking [council name] to pass a similar motion and to write to the Prime Minister and Minister for Women in support.
[One line on why this matters to you.]
