Another woman’s body found. Another sister and daughter remembered. Another life of experience, potential, love and kindness taken.
While the crisis of violence against women has been receiving fewer headlines in recent months, the crisis is very much continuing in every state and territory across Australia.
Today, we learn that it was Nikkita Azzopardi’s body that was found in a home in South Morang in Melbourne on Monday morning. She was 35. A man, believed to have been her partner for two and a half years, has been arrested over her death.
Azzopardi’s brother Shaun spoke to the media on Tuesday, noting how the family had grown increasingly concerned about her when she failed to show up for a pre-planned family barbecue on Sunday.
Shaun, his brother, and his father went to the home of their sister and daughter. He says they broke into the home and then had to break through a door that had been barricaded with chairs to find Nikkita.
Shaun described his sister as seeing good in everyone, a “gentle soul”.
“She’d do anything for anyone. She’s a gentle soul. She’ll help anyone. She was always a good listener,” Shaun said.
“She just didn’t see the bad in people. She always saw the good … It just feels like a dream. It doesn’t feel real.”
Victorian Police said a 33-year-old man who was not previously known to police was interviewed late on Monday.
With investigations still ongoing into Nikkita’s death, she would be the 57th woman killed by violence so far in 2024 according to Destroy the Joint’s Counting Dead Women, which currently puts the toll of violence against women at 56. Australian Femicide Watch, which takes a different approach to updating its toll and includes Australian women killed overseas, says Azzopardi is the 71st Australian woman killed by violence this year,
And as I prepared to publish this piece shortly after midday on Tuesday, I had to pause as reports of yet another woman’s body was found, this time on the side of a road near Bourke in NSW, where police have established a crime scene. The woman has yet to be formally identified. A 49-year-old man known to the woman is assisting police with inquiries.
The 56th woman killed by violence, according to Counting Dead Women, was a still yet-to-be-identified woman in her fifties, who police found with serious injuries in a tent at a caravan park in Gunnedah, North Central NSW. She died at the scene. A man, believed to have been known to the woman, was arrested and charged with murder.
That was on Thursday, October 25.
Just eleven days earlier came news of another woman killed by violence, this time in Lajamanu NT. She was 42 and had suffered stabbing injuries. Her partner, also unnamed, was arrested near the scene.
Also in October, came news of the death of Christine Mills, age 58, who died in hospital in Coffs Harbour, after police had been called to her home for a welfare check to find her with severe facial injuries. Five days later, she died in hospital. Her thirty-year-old son was extradited from Queensland to face charges in NSW, including murder and contravening an apprehended violence order.
On October 7, came reports from Darwin of the death of a 37 year old sistergirl from the Tiwi Islands community of Milikapiti, with her uncle charged with murder.
Then there was the news, on the first day of the month of another woman killed who was found with critical injuries in the final hours of September 30. The 22-year-old woman in Katherine, NT, later died in hospital. Her 36-year-old partner was charged with murder. This was the second suspected domestic violence-related death in Katherine since July, in the remote town with an estimated residential population of less than 11,000.
The above is not the extent of the toll of violence against women. Merely it’s what can be verified according to police reports, and where charges have been made. Also in October, Femicide Watch notes the death of a 41-year-old woman in Vincent, Queensland, also unnamed. A man has been charged with grievous bodily harm (domestic violence), with the charge not expected to be upgraded until he appears before court in December.
And, of course, the toll continues in the numbers we don’t see and hear about. Where assaults occur behind closed doors and are never recorded, or may go on to become police statistics. Where the abuse – physical, mental and financial – generates physical and mental scars that impact the lives of women and their families for generations. And where women continue to be trapped by financial circumstances or fear or expectations or simply by fact they have nowhere else to go. And where women question if the protections they’ve fought to achieve, like an AVO, will be enough.
Recently, Siobhan Mackay and Caitlin Weatherby, both representing teams working on the domestic violence frontlines of Katherine and the Top End, published a desperate plea in Women’s Agenda for the Territory and Federal Governments to commit to sustainable and ongoing funding for services, noting that the NT has the highest rate of domestic and family violence assaults in the country. That was August. Sadly, October carries news or more deaths of women in the territory.
But it’s not just in the Northern Territory.
The crisis of violence against women occurs in large cities, as with this latest death in Melbourne. It’s in regional areas like Coffs Harbour and rural and remote areas. It’s in every state and territory across Australia.
And this crisis is not slowing down, despite the weeks of talks on the issue that occurred earlier this year.
If you or someone you know is experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, domestic, family or sexual violence call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, chat online via 1800RESPECT.org.au or text 0458 737 732.
If you are concerned about your behaviour or use of violence, you can contact the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491 or visit www.ntv.org.au.