Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and households are safe.

By 2031, the rate of all forms of family violence and abuse against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children is reduced at least by 50 per cent, as progress towards zero.

Proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander females aged 15 years and over who experienced domestic physical or threatened physical harm in the last 12 months.

This measure is defined as:

Numerator — number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander females aged 15 years and over who experienced physical harm and/or threatened face-to-face physical harm in the last 12 months where the perpetrator was a family member

Denominator — total number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander females aged 15 years and over

and is presented as a percentage.

National Agreement on Closing the Gap July 2020; revised April 2021

23 June 2021

Target

A low or decreasing proportion is desirable. A decrease from the baseline year is an improvement.

Name: National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey (NATSIHS)

Frequency: Periodic

Documentation (links): https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples/national-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-health-survey/2018-19

Provider name: Australian Bureau of Statistics

Provider area: Centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Statistics

2018-19

2030-31

State and territory and Australia.

Numerator divided by Denominator multiplied by 100

Counting rules

Data are for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were usual residents of private dwellings in Australia and were present at the survey interview.

Geographical variables are based on the location of the household.

‘Physical harm’ refers to any incident where a person was physically hurt or harmed by someone on purpose, including physical fights. Other forms of abuse (for example: sexual, emotional, psychological) are not included.

‘Threatened physical harm’ refers to threats of physical harm that occurred face-to-face.

‘Family/domestic violence (physical or threatened harm)’ includes perpetrators who are a current partner, previous partner, boyfriend, girlfriend, date, ex-boyfriend, ex-girlfriend, parent, child, sibling or other family member.

Excludes (numerator):

• people who did not state if they were a victim of domestic physical or threatened physical harm.

Supporting calculations

• Confidence intervals.

See the How to interpret data for further information: https://www.pc.gov.au/closing-the-gap-data/how-to/interpret-data.

See NATSIHS methodology for further information: https://www.abs.gov.au/methodologies/national-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-health-survey-methodology

Data have been randomly adjusted using perturbation to avoid the release of confidential data. Discrepancies may occur between sums of the component items and totals.

These data do not measure experience of violence for children.

Experiences of harm are likely to be under-reported. Due to the sensitive nature of the questions, responses were not compulsory, and a person may have chosen not to answer some or any of the questions.

The physical and threatened physical harm data collected in the 2018-19 NATSIHS are not comparable to other ABS data sources collecting similar data, including data from: the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey; the General Social Survey; the Personal Safety Survey; or, Recorded Crime – Victims.

Estimates that have a relative standard error between 25 per cent and 50 per cent should be used with caution. Estimates with a relative standard error of 50 per cent or more are considered too unreliable for general use.

Additional disaggregations required for future reporting:

• Remoteness areas and other small geographic areas (where available)
• Disability status
• Gender
• Age
• Indigenous status (comparable data on non-Indigenous people are currently not available).