Independent MP Zoe Daniel is pushing for urgent action to address men’s violence against women and children in Australia, stating in parliament that “enough is enough”.
As Daniel noted in a speech in parliament on Monday, Australia has witnessed a horrific two months of domestic and family violence, with six women in killed within a fortnight in October, five allegedly by men known to them. In November, six women in Australia have been killed in seven days, five allegedly by men. As we reported on Women’s Agenda, there were four alleged domestic violence homicides in South Australia in just one week.
“Intimate partner violence is the biggest preventable threat to the health, wellbeing, and safety of Australian women,” Daniel said. “Across Southeast Melbourne including in my electorate of Goldstein, half of the police caseload is family and domestic violence.”
“We must do more if we’re going to end violence against women and children within a generation as the government’s National Plan sets out to do.”
Daniel proposes an Australian Family Homicide Prevention Initiative
Daniel moved a motion in the House of Representatives calling for the establishment of an Australian Family Homicide Prevention Initiative that she says would help save lives by providing evidence-based tools and guidance to inform better intervention and prevention of violence.
The initiative would work alongside the government’s recently announced statistical dashboard that would allow quarterly reporting on rates of intimate partner homicide in Australia. It would document all acts of family violence-related homicides and offer an independent assessment of when interventions could have taken place and what risks were present prior to their deaths.
In parliament, Daniel questioned why the government’s new dashboard would be retrospective and why children would not be included in the statistics.
“While I welcome this announcement, it does not address the full range of Australians killed by domestic, family and sexual violence. Child victims will be invisible in this reporting. A curious omission given the National Plan’s commitment to children as victim-survivors in their own right,” Daniel said.
“Reporting via the dashboard will be retrospective. Published once every three months. How is it that we can report live on the road toll but only four times a year on intimate partner homicides? And never on children killed?
“State-based and national road tolls have driven public awareness around road deaths and driver behaviour.”
Daniel also hosted a press conference with family violence advocate and former Australian of the Year, Rosie Batty, and requested the government light up Parliament House in orange on Monday night to mark the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.
“I am very pleased the government agreed to my request to light up parliament tonight so the building will be lit up in orange to mark what is a really important, indeed critical issue for our community,” Daniel said.
“With more than 50 women dead again this year, largely as a result of violence from intimate partners — I feel that if that was happening in any other circumstance, that would be a declared national emergency.
“Yet myself and the other women standing here talk about this every day in this place and we just seem to be treading water.”
Rosie Batty, a national leader in the family violence sector, spoke about approaching the 10-year anniversary of her son, Luke’s murder.
“I’ve been standing up in front of the Australian public for 10 years and this is exhausting, it is overwhelming, and it is disheartening,” Batty said on Monday.
“When I first lost Luke, I didn’t realise how difficult and how long change would take. I felt that as soon as you bring people on board there was the possibility for change.
“When I look back over my journey, change has occurred, we have made improvements. Many more women have now reached out for help and support but we still have on average, one woman a week being murdered and we’re not even brave enough to talk about children. That tragedy stays silent and through that silence it is allowed to continue.”
Batty said it’s important to have data, but it doesn’t prevent violence from occurring.
“We still need to understand that this isn’t something that can be fixed quickly. A lot of the things that we introduced will help, and data to understand deaths and how they are occurring is critical, but it doesn’t stop it from happening,” she said.
“There is no simple solution…but the core of this begins with respect and how we respect each other and value each other.
“So I stand here today supporting these politicians who have shown leadership because this is where power is held in this country and influence cannot be underestimated.”
If you are concerned about your behaviour, or about someone using violence, call Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491.
If you or someone you know is in need of help due to sexual assault or family and domestic violence contact 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732
In an emergency call 000.