When disaster strikes, a national team responds. What about when 52 women are killed?

When a natural disaster strikes, Australia has a dedicated national emergency management team that coordinates preparations and a response.

But when 52 women are killed since January, including three separate deaths in less than 24 hours, there is no such thing, Liberal frontbencher and shadow women’s minister Melissa McIntosh says.

“What happens in a national emergency? We have a full process, we have technology, we have preparation,” she said.

“We have inputs of data, and we test the system, and we test scenarios, and we test it over and over again to get the outcomes and to predict where things are.

“Why can’t we be using the technology that we have for disasters and apply that to this?”

McIntosh is calling for a “war room” or “situation room” response to the rates of domestic and family violence that would oversee nationally consistent prevention and response measures.

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It would require cooperation from the states and territories and organisations, identify gaps in the system and trends.

“If it’s a national emergency, let’s start treating it like a national emergency,” she said.

Shaun Azzopardi’s sister Nikkita Azzopardi, 35, was killed by her partner Joel Micallef, 34, at their home in Melbourne in 2024.

Micallef repeatedly struck her with an iron fire stoker.

She was found dead with severe blunt force injuries to her head and face two days later after she failed to show at a family gathering.

Shaun Azzopardi said her death could have been prevented.

“I look about my sister’s case, if it was well known to the public, and she knew that there was no way of Joel finding out, then maybe she would have made that call,” he said.

“But the thing is a lot of females are scared of their partners.

“Having that support network there, I think that will definitely, definitely help.”

A third of all homicides in 2025, 133 of 435, were domestic and family violence-related, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

So far this year, 52 women and 20 children have been killed, the Australian Femicide Watch said.

That statistic includes three women killed in separate alleged domestic violence-related incidents in less than 24 hours in NSW last weekend.

They were 90-year-old Valentina Spivak from Bondi Beach, an unidentified 70-year-old woman from Mole River and an unidentified 23-year-old woman from Wagga Wagga.

Women’s Minister Katy Gallagher said her thoughts were with the women and their families.

“Governments have to lead and take responsibility and we do that and we’re continuing to do that,” she told the ABC on Monday.

“There is no easy solution. If there was one, we would have already put it in place and more money’s part of it.”

Recently in August, following a series of high-profile sexual assault investigations, the federal and state and territory leaders met and agreed to a new national risk assessment framework so that women who seek help for sexual or domestic violence will have their warning signs recognised and acted upon in each jurisdiction.

Each leader also agreed to establish national standards for the quality, consistency and accessibility of frontline domestic, family and sexual violence responses and will report their progress by the end of the year.

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But others want to see more urgent action from the prime minister.

“We have these mechanisms when something big happens, the country can act quickly,” McIntosh said.

“We can act really fast. We acted quickly during the pandemic. It was extraordinary what was done during that time at pace.

“Why aren’t we doing that now? Why aren’t we acting with speed, with urgency?”

Azzopardi agreed.

“If it’s someone within the government cabinet and if it was them, you’d see more swift action,” he said.