Family Violence Murder – NSW

Melbourne, 19 May 2026 – Australian Childhood Foundation is deeply saddened by the alleged murder of a woman and two young boys in New South Wales. This is the eighth and ninth death of a child, and 29th death of a woman from violence since the start of the year. Today, as we mourn this family, it is critical we ask why our national responses to violence are failing to centre the rights of children.

The Foundation is increasingly concerned that the national discourse is positioning boys primarily as sites of prevention of future family violence, too often denying the reality that boys are also victims of family violence today. When our public conversation does not recognise boys as children, children whose lives are shaped by fear, dependence, attachment, powerlessness and the failure of adults and systems to protect them, we risk leaving their experiences outside the frame.

Boys and girls’ victimhood is too often unacknowledged, even though they are among the most vulnerable in family violence contexts.

A gendered analysis of violence is essential. But it must be strong enough to hold children in their own right. Boys killed or harmed in family violence contexts are not an uncomfortable complication to that analysis. They are children with rights, needs, relationships and lives that should have been protected.

We call for the centring of the needs of all children, regardless of their gender identity, in the context of the development of the Second Action Plan under the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children, and any other actions taken to address this national crisis.

Media enquiries:

Gina Dafalia
PR and Communications
Phone: 0447558195
Email: gdafalia@childhood.org.au