Several rallies were held around Australia over the weekend, making a powerful call for an end to deadly violence against women.
Taking place in at least 14 cities and towns, the events were organised by Australian Femicide Watch and The Red Heart campaign, both of which advocate widely for funding and legal reform from state and federal governments towards ending male violence against women.
Demonstrators at the events honoured all of the women who have been killed by men since the beginning of 2024. Founder of Femicide Watch and the Red Heart campaign, Sherele Moody reports that a heartbreaking 117 women have been killed since January 1, 2024.
Despite the hundreds of people who gathered to voice their grave concerns, many politicians were absent from the weekend’s violence rallies.
Organiser Moody said state and federal politicians across the nation were invited, but she was disappointed in their lack of attendance, particularly Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
“He could have listened to—and learned from—families who have lost women to femicide as well as sexual violence, domestic violence and other violence survivors,” Moody wrote on Instagram.
Despite this, Moody said as well that the speakers who showed up to voice their grave concerns for the safety of women were “courageous, angry, passionate and devastating”.
Their voices rang out at demonstrations throughout the nation, including Adelaide, Canberra, Brisbane, Newcastle, Orange, Perth, Sydney and Hobart.
In Melbourne, a powerful alleyway tribute showcased the faces of the women murdered by men in 2024, with the CEO of DART Institute Australia Jolene Ellat describing the reality of the situation as “overwhelming”.
“My frame isn’t large enough to capture the full scope of their faces. The emotions I felt in this moment were overwhelming — a deep sorrow, profound sadness, hurt, anger, and a fierce determination to drive change,” Ellat writes.
The strategy to end violence
The national rallies have come as the federal government submits its ninth periodic report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women this month, where it admits “more must be done” to eliminate gender based violence.
Addressing this issue in a new Quarterly Essay, advocate and award-winning journalist Jess Hill argues that the National Plan for Ending Gender Based Violence is failing.
Within the two national plans that have been put out by the federal government since 2010, Hill says the same strategy has been used and it’s not working well enough for the crisis of violence that Australia is facing.
“What we’ve seen since 2010 is more of the same being done, and we set out with a really bold objective in 2010– something no other country had done– that we were going to put a big focus on prevention. We were going to try to change the way that Australians felt, thought and behaved around gender and power,” Hill tells the ABC.
Rather than simply ‘doing more’, Hill argues that the issue is more likely where the government is placing its focus.
“It was thought that we’d be able to reduce violence and by 2019, we were supposed to see those violence rates come down, but they didn’t. And instead of really grappling with what went wrong in the second national plan, which came out in 2022, we sort of just barreled ahead with the same plan– do more, spend more on basically the same strategy,” she says.
“What we need to remember is that prevention work has to find a way into the minds and bodies of the people who are most likely to act violently, whether that be sexual, physical, emotional… and it needs to find a way to stop them from doing that.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, domestic, family or sexual violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, text 0458 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au for online chat and video call services.
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 http://www.ntv.org.au.
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