New report finds eight women per day hospitalised by husbands or partners

EVERY day across Australia eight women are injured so badly by their husbands or partners they are taken to hospital, a shocking new report has found.

EVERY day across Australia eight women are injured so badly by their husbands or partners they are taken to hospital, a shocking new report has found.

The first comprehensive report into family, domestic and sexual violence also shows police record 52 sexual assaults against women every single day of the week — and an average of 11 men are also attacked.

For the first time the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has drilled down into hospital admission records, and pulled together information from 20 different data sources, to publish a wideranging report into what experts describe as a “massive national problem”.

An average one woman is killed every week and one man every month “as a result of violence from a current or previous partner”, the Family, domestic and sexual violence in Australia 2018 report found.

Police record 52 sexual assaults against women every single day of the week

“The seriousness of these issues cannot be overstated,” AIHW chief executive Barry Sandison said.

The report authors estimate the cost to the economy — from health costs, counselling, welfare as well as lost wages — to be in the realm of $22 billion.

“It’s more expensive than any other social problem we have yet we starve women’s refuges and underfund counselling services and think sticking up a poster is the way to prevent the violence,” Rape and Domestic Violence Services Australia executive officer Karen Willis said.

“Domestic violence accounts for between 30 and 40 per cent of all police work.

“Just on those two statistics, let alone the personal costs, impact on children, and impact on society — those stats tell us we have a massive and very expensive problem.”

She said the #MeToo phenomena would encourage more women to report harassment and assaults.

For women aged between 25 and 44, domestic violence caused more illness, injury and death than any other risk factor and was the most common cause of hospitalisation.

The researchers cited figures showing that one in six adult women — a total of 1.6 million over 15 years of age — have experienced physical or sexual violence from a spouse or partner, compared with one in 16, or six per cent of men.

Four per cent of men who are hospitalised after an assault are domestic violence victims, equating to about two a day.

Women were four times more likely to be sexually assaulted by someone they knew, rather than a stranger.

‘Women are more likely to experience violence from a known person and in their home, while men are more likely to experience violence from strangers and in a public place,” AIHW spokeswoman Louise York said.

Nearly one in five of the 19,000 emergency department admissions for assault (both men and women) in 2014-15 were caused by a partner, the analysis of the hospital records found.

A further nine per cent were injured by other family members such as siblings or parents, while information about the perpetrators was missing in 43 per cent of cases.

Two in three of the female domestic violence victims were assaulted by bodily force, and another 20 per cent by a blunt or sharp object. Of the pregnant women who were bashed, the most common site of injury was the head or neck, followed by the trunk including the throat, stomach and lower back.

The report also found migrants from non-English speaking countries were more likely to have victim-blaming attitudes.

Almost half, or 46 per cent of women who experienced violence from a former partner did not actually seek help afterwards. And eight in ten women, and nine in ten men, did not contact police.

A recent Productivity Commission report into policing showed NSW had the worst figure on sexual assault per 100,000 people, only beaten by the Northern Territory.

A spokeswoman for Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Minister Pru Goward said the Berejiklian Government was spending $50 million on sexual assault services, including $10 million on adult and child victims of sexual assault funding and $20 million for 55 NSW Health sexual assault services.