The result is a nationwide system that cannot see, count, or support male victims. Australia’s national DV risk frameworks, including ANROWS guidance and state‑based risk tools derived from it, only detect male‑typical aggression. For male victims, protection orders against their female abusers become a shortcut to “mission complete”, not the beginning of an investigation. Australia has created an interlocking national system of institutionalised misidentification because it has created a national system that only recognises one gender’s victim profile. Suicide is the national fatality pathway for male DV victims — but because Australia refuses to measure it, male deaths are quietly administratively erased.

Source: The Guardian February 12, 2026 13:08 UTC