Canberran Kylie Message-Jones has been running most of her life. She used to prefer the solitude of trail runs before sunrise.

“It was like I wasn’t even awake, and I just adored it,” Kylie said.

Over the years however, she stopped.

“I started to hear about things happening to women generally and became more aware of what might happen,” she said.

Kylie still runs, but believes the internalisation of fear living as a woman, has gradually altered her behaviour.

“I’ll only have one ear pod in now, am always aware of the space around me… and don’t post my runs on social media,” she said.

Data provided to Canberra Daily by ACT Policing shows that between 1 June 2024 and 31 May 2025, there were 7,453 reported offences where the victim was female.

Of these, the number of physical and sexual assaults which occurred in public and other places, and which were not domestic, and family violence related, was 629.

Another 317 occurred in a home.

There was one homicide.

The number of physical and sexual assaults which were family violence related across all locations was 1,162.

It’s not surprising then, that women are internalising their fear and changing behaviours.

But should they have to?

ACT Federal Senator David Pocock wants to make it clear to men and society, that women should not.

Senator Pocock told CW that it is the responsibility of all men, plus the wider community to address violent, derogatory and unacceptable attitudes toward women.

Senator Pocock added that state and federal governments also need to address the “…disconnect between what politicians will get up and say and what they’re willing to actually fund”.

“It really is a big challenge because I think you need both cultural change, leadership from government around legislation and funding of different programs, and getting in front of boys and young men talking about what it is to be a man,” Senator Pocock said.

Sue Webeck, CEO of the ACT Domestic Violence Crisis Service (DVCS), agrees that preventing violence against women is a complex problem which we are all responsible for.

Ms Webeck also believes we need to be careful about placing too much responsibility for change, on young men only, as it can set them up to fail when structures around them don’t change.

“We need to take responsibility as adults… Not just around the way we treat each other in intimate partner relationships or family relationships, but the way we engage with all human beings,” said Ms Webeck.

Ms Webeck is concerned that the “active ease that has happened around being able to ‘other’ people, to see them as ‘less than’ us” is an important contributing factor to violence against women.

Echoing these sentiments of collective responsibility is Dr Marisa Paterson MLA, Minister for Women, and Minister for the Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence as well as four other ministerial portfolios.

Dr Paterson reiterated that what is modelled at home, where most gendered violence occurs, is very important but agreed that negative attitudes toward women are also modelled across broader society.

“It goes to our sporting fields and the way our sporting teams operate and prioritise men’s sport. It goes to our parliaments and parties and how they elect people, our university structures and male dominated industries and sectors,” said Dr Paterson.

Dr Paterson also agrees that the Government must continue to address prevention of gendered violence and the needs of its victims.

On 11 June, the ACT Government announced a $30 million 2025–26 budget commitment to strengthen and expand the Territory’s response. Dr Paterson indicated that further pilot programs are in development.

The ACT Government already provides funding for men’s behaviour change programs, including the DVCS run free 30-week Room4Change Program, Everyman ACT’s Working with The Man and Preventing Violence, Changing Behaviour Programs, and the Multicultural Hub’s Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Men’s Non-Violence Behaviour Program, for men who want to stop their use of violence and controlling behaviours.

These programs did not benefit from this additional funding despite being required to provide partner support programs as part of the ACT behavioural change programs Practice Standards. Providers report significant waiting lists made worse by this underfunding.

“Effective and timely responses to incidences of domestic and family violence, are proven to provide a secondary prevention layer against further harm occurring,” said Ms Webeck.

An ACT Government spokesperson provided a detailed response to underfunding concerns, reiterating the government’s commitment to ongoing support of men’s behaviour change programs, and included, “We encourage all service providers to engage in the ACT Budget submission process, ensuring government has a full understanding of both the supports offered and the resources required to respond to demand.”

Violence against women is indeed a multifaceted tragedy. One that we all ought to agree on, benefits no one.