Four things that could change RIGHT NOW to save the lives of Aussie women from ... trends now
Emma Bates, 49, became the 26th woman to die after allegedly being assaulted this year, after she was found dead at her Cobram home, in Victoria near the NSW border, on Tuesday.
Her neighbour John Torney, 39 - who was on a community corrections order after recently being released from prison for assault - has been charged over the alleged attack.
Just a day earlier, young mother and childcare worker Molly Ticehurst, 28, was found dead in her Forbes home after allegedly being murdered by her ex-partner, Daniel Billings, 29.
At the time, Billings was facing multiple alleged charges in relation to Ms Ticehurst but had been freed on bail due to a decision by a court official.
The back-to-back tragedies have reignited calls for greater action to be taken to combat violence against women, with the NSW government announcing a review of the state's bail system in light of Ms Ticehurst's death.
Molly Ticehurst (pictured) was allegedly murdered on Monday - just ten days after celebrating her 28th birthday
However, critics say the review will take months to complete and urgent changes need to be made now to save women's lives. And their argument is backed by statistics.
On average, a woman is killed every nine days by a current or former partner - but 2024 has so far signalled an alarming upwards trend.
So far this year, a woman has been killed in Australia every four days - with eleven more deaths as of April this year compared to this time last year.
Here, Daily Mail Australia examines the four things the government could do to combat violence against women.
1. Ankle bracelets
Electronic monitoring devices are already used across Australia for detention, restriction and surveillance purposes of offenders.
The GPS devices are resistant to tampering and breaking the straps generates an immediate alert to authorities monitoring the person.
But while they are commonplace for those on bail for offences such as drug dealing, they are yet to be rolled out nationally for domestic violence offenders.
In 2022, the Federal government announced $20million in Commonwealth funding would be shared by the states and territories to trial GPS monitoring of high-risk domestic violence offenders.
The cash boost came after a Tasmanian pilot program was incredibly successful, demonstrating a '76 per cent decrease of high-risk incidents, 81 per cent reduction of threats and 100 per cent decrease in reports of stalking'.
The study also found 80 per cent of offenders also 'did not re-offend' in the six months after.
Australian states and territories are in various stages of the trial and rollout phase, with Western Australia due to introduce laws in coming months which would see GPS trackers made mandatory for repeat domestic violence offenders.
However, Geoffrey Watson SC, director at the Centre for Public Integrity, argues it should not be hard to hastily rollout GPS trackers.
Mr Watson argued the government can be quick to enact change when it wants to, such as with the Howard government's gun reforms after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre.
'The police, with some supervision by the courts, need to be given the power to control the men accused of these offences,' he wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald. 'Such control orders are already well-recognised.
'They are applied in many circumstances where there is only a suspicion of risk, and in the absence of a conviction – bail laws and conditions are obvious examples.
'In other words, it is nothing new, and it can be done.'
Former Australian of the Year, Rosie Batty (pictured) has called for stronger language for domestic violence offences
2. Strengthening reporting conditions
Reporting conditions are already used throughout the Australian criminal justice system to monitor offenders on bail, on non-custodial sentences and parole.
Mr Watson argues that making reporting conditions more stringent could help police officers gain more control over high-risk offenders and deter them from committing further offences.
3. Legalisation of pepper spray
A petition calling for the federal government to legalise pepper spray began circulating in the wake of the Bondi Junction Westfield massacre.
Currently, it is only legal to carry pepper spray in Western Australia.
The suggestion has been controversial, with some commentators questioning whether pepper spray would
