Office for Women confirms male victims were omitted from Federal Women's Budget Statement

The 2023-24 Federal Women's Budget Statement, published on 9 May 2023, contains a serious statistical error.

Chart 2.1: 12-month prevalence rates of intimate partner violence and sexual harassment over time (page 44) contains no data for men’s experience of intimate partner violence:

The footnote reads:

"Note: Intimate partner violence statistics for men have a high relative standard error and are considered too unreliable to measure changes over time."

This is incorrect. Because the ABS interviewed 4.75 times fewer male than female respondents for their 2021-22 survey (9,832 women and 2,073 men), the 2021-22 estimate for men does indeed have a relative standard error of 25% to 50%, and therefore should be used with caution. However the estimates for the previous 2005, 2012 and 2016 surveys were reliable.

We have checked with the ABS who have confirmed this.

In a letter to us dated 30 June 2023, Rochelle White, Assistant Secretary, Office for Women confirmed "that data for the proportion of men who have experienced intimate partner violence in the 2016, 2012 and 2005 surveys do not have a high relative standard error" and included the following table with the correct figures for women and men that were omitted from the Women's Budget Statement:

Yet despite this acknowledgement of the error, the Australian Government have not amended the Women’s Budget Statement. We have lodged a complaint with the Treasury.

Erasing one third of people who experienced intimate partner violence, even if unintentionally, is a terrible error to make. The Australian public should not be misled any further.