A high price to pay: The economic case for preventing violence against women

PwC is proud to have partnered with Our Watch and the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth) to develop this important report on the costs and benefits of preventing violence against women. Our Watch and VicHealth are organisations at the forefront of preventing violence against women and the report has benefited greatly from their input and partnership. The report has been provided to the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence.

The cost of violence against women is high and increasing in Australia. We estimate that violence against women costs $21.7 billion a year, with victims bearing the primary burden of this cost. Governments (national and State and Territory) bear the second biggest cost burden, estimated at $7.8 billion a year, comprising health, administration and social welfare costs.

If no further action is taken to prevent violence against women, we estimate that costs will accumulate to $323.4 billion over a thirty year period from 2014-15 to 2044-45.

There is opportunity for governments to invest in preventing violence before it occurs. Evidence from other countries shows that there are significant benefits from investing in prevention. We estimate that if similar reductions in violence were achieved as in prevention programs overseas, the benefits would range from $37.8 billion to $74.7 billion over a lifetime.

We note that the program benefits estimated should not be viewed in isolation, but form part of an integrated, multi-faceted and long term prevention approach.