The South Australian Government has released the final report of the Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence, marking the end of a year-long process that included hearings, submissions and extensive community input.
The main report, With Courage: South Australia’s vision beyond violence, runs to 700 pages and sets out 136 recommendations across prevention, response, recovery and long-term reform. Alongside it, a 112-page Voices report captures testimony from hundreds of people with lived experience, family members and supporters.
The Commission has recommended a broad framework of change, including structural reform to create a more cohesive system, raising public awareness and visibility through education and justice initiatives, strengthening access to crisis responses, ensuring perpetrators are held accountable, building holistic supports for survivors and laying stronger foundations for prevention.
The state government has committed to seven recommendations immediately. These include the creation of a dedicated ministerial portfolio for domestic, family and sexual violence, appointment of a Government Steward to oversee progress, development of a statewide five-year strategy, and establishment of Lived Experience Advisory Networks for both adults and children. Senior leadership across government will also be required to develop an implementation plan, with progress linked to the performance agreements of chief executives.
Premier Peter Malinauskas said the Commission had completed a major body of work after extensive engagement with survivors and experts. “They make for harrowing reading,” he said. “But this report is also a document filled with hope. It sets out a pathway to improve the way we respond to this scourge, and to prevent it from happening in the first place. Today the work begins to respond to the 136 recommendations in a way to deliver that change strategically, methodically, and in a way that can deliver lasting change.”
Minister Katrine Hildyard described the report as a rare opportunity. “The Royal Commission presents our state with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a system that protects, empowers and heals,” she said. “It creates an opportunity for our whole community, every agency of government and the whole sector to collaboratively drive change, with the voices and experiences of brave survivors in our hearts and minds as we do so.”
She said the voices of Aboriginal people, survivors and children had been placed at the centre of the Commission and would remain at the heart of government action. “We have listened and now we are acting,” she said.
Royal Commissioner Natasha Stott Despoja AO said she was proud of the final report. “Our aim was always to be forward facing, practical and inclusive,” she said. “I cannot thank enough those people who trusted me with their insights, stories and their time. It has been confronting and compelling, but I believe we have a blueprint for positive change. I’m hopeful that we have a once in generation opportunity to make a difference and ensure victim survivors are supported, people who use violence are held to account and that groups that previously have had little or no support will be included in a reformed system.”
The Commission was established following the murders of four women in South Australia within one week in November 2023, events that highlighted systemic failings and spurred calls for urgent reform.
The state government has already introduced a suite of measures in parallel, including criminalising coercive control, setting up new prevention and recovery hubs, reserving public housing for women fleeing violence, and legislating for high-risk defendants to be electronically monitored on home detention bail.
The release of the report now sets the stage for broader reform, with government pledging to carefully assess the full list of recommendations and develop a long-term plan that balances urgency with the need for sustainable change.
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