A national discussion about sexual violence is long overdue, according to Nicole Lambert, chair of the National Association of Services Against Sexual Violence (NASASV).
An estimated 89,400 people aged 18 and over experienced sexual assault across Australia in 2024-2025, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
In its last Personal Safety Survey in 2022, the ABS estimated 2.8 million people aged 18 and older had experienced sexual violence since the age of 15.
The 2023 Child Maltreatment Study estimated about 28.5 per cent of Australians had experienced sexual abuse before the age of 18.
According to the ABS, only 6.1 per cent of women in Australia experienced sexual violence by a male stranger.
Twenty per cent — equivalent to 2 million women nationwide — had experienced sexual violence by a man already familiar to them.
Last year the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) published the results of its Justice Responses to Sexual Violence inquiry.
The report noted that nine out of 10 women did not report sexual violence to the police and that their experience with the justice system was “re-traumatising”.
Source: Support services nationwide ‘buckling under demand’ during Sexual Assault Awareness Month – ABC News