By Garry Howe, Group Editor
Family violence and violence against women has been described as a scourge on society.
Federal Attorney General Mark Dreyfus last week went as far as describing it as a national crisis and he made a plea for men to step up – to “educate ourselves, our sons, our colleagues and our friends”.
Our Watch data shows that on average one woman every nine days is killed by a current or former partner and 13 women a day are hospitalised.
That’s not good enough.
Here at Warwick Today and Stanthorpe Today, we are heeding that call and this week launch a campaign that we’re calling The Road To Respect, hoping to shine a light on the issue with a view to helping to facilitate a change in behaviour and attitude.
Family violence is an issue that impacts heavily on every community and doesn’t discriminate between race or religion, city or country, or rich or poor.
Its flow-on impact is enormous, like the amount of police time it takes up.
In Queensland, Hannah’s Law will outlaw coercive behaviour in the wake of the horrors inflected on Hannah Clarke and her family. There is also growing unrest around the Kelly Wilkinson murder at the hands of her partner.
The Ballarat region in Victoria is reeling after three women met a violence end in separate incidents over the space of a few weeks.
In Sydney, five women were killed in what looks like gendered attack in a shopping centre, along with a security guard who tried to come to their aid.
They are the ones that make the news.
This region is not immune from the damage caused by family violence and violence against women and children. Just ask the local police, or those who work in related agencies.
Those from the Baby Boomer generation can remember being piled in the back of the car unrestrained, barely being able to see out the windows from cigarette smoke and being driven around by someone under the influence, with no real stigma about drink-driving back then.
How times have changed.
These changes in attitude and behaviour are generational and we need to get to a time when the notion of discriminating or being violent towards women carries the same stigma as not belting up or not driving under the influence.
As a society we need to tackle contributing factors like gender inequity, male privilege and toxic masculinity, but that doesn’t need to become an exercise in man bashing.
The overwhelming majority of men and good and they also suffer from family violence, but it’s a sad fact that men are overwhelmingly more likely to kill their partners.
We will be looking to encourage respectful relationships and highlight some of the good work being done in that space.
We can all play a part, so join us on a journey down The Road To Respect and help stamp out this national scourge.
