State’s sports groups step up to play their role in stopping FDV as annual campaign set to begin

Representatives from 12 of the State’s biggest sporting groups have come together to take a stand against family and domestic violence in the lead up to the 16 Days in WA campaign.

Players and administrators from groups including Football WA, Netball WA, Rugby WA, Athletics West and WA Cricket joined forces on Thursday to show their support for the initiative.

With less than a month to go until the 16 Days in WA campaign — which aims to stop violence against women in the State — the Cook Government is talking up the impact sports clubs can have on changing men and boy’s behaviour.

Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence Minister Jessica Stojkovski said sports clubs could make real change.

“We are harnessing sports influence, as we know not just our kids but our communities look up to our sports stars so we are harnessing sports influence today to carry this message for us into the community,” she said.

“We also know that sporting teams, they work on culture, they work on teamwork, and we want to harness this to work on culture and teamwork in our community, to talk about stopping family and domestic violence and to talk about respect in our community.”

This year marks the ninth edition of the program which will run from November 25 — the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women — to December 10.

This year the theme is “play your part”, focusing on men and boys championing respect for women and taking positive action.

West Coast Fever captain Jess Anstiss spoke about playing her part in the campaign.

“I’m once again proud to be an agent for change as part of the 16 days in WA campaign, I am determined to see an end to family and domestic violence, I’m committed to playing my part in this movement,” she said.

“I urge all sporting organisations and athletes to use our platforms to spread the message and try and stop family and domestic violence.”

This year’s campaign comes off the back of confronting WA Police statistics in August showing there were 35,806 reports of family and domestic violence-related assaults reported to police across the State in 2024-25.

The figure is a 12 per cent increase in just 12 months and a 72 per cent increase in a decade.

On Thursday Ms Stojkovski reiterated the Government’s position that the increase in reports was down to more awareness.

“I will never shy away from reporting of family and domestic violence numbers going up,” she said.

“I firmly believe that the more we talk about it, the more we talk about it in our communities, in our families, on our sporting fields or on our courts, the more people become comfortable to actually seek the help that they need or to make those reports.”

It also comes amid questions over the timeline of the Cook Government’s long-promised coercive control legislation.

Ms Stojkovski said the Bill would be brought before the end of the current term but had to be done right.

“It’s not an easy piece of legislation, in talking with the police, just on the evidence gathering aspect of it being able to prove that somebody has coercively controlled you.

“For things like, he deliberately took the car when he knew I needed to take the kids to school and go to the doctors that day, how do you prove that?”