SIXTY-NINE women. That’s the current tally of the Destroy the Joint activist group’s Counting Dead Women project, which tracks the number of Australian women murdered this year.
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Sixty-nine women are dead. Sixty-nine families are devastated and communities have asked themselves 69 times how it could happen.
As a community we need to ask why it happened and look for an answer beyond “just leave”.
The Destroy the Joint website points to an article by a writer named Maisha Z Johnson, who is said to be a domestic violence survivor.
Ms Johnson explains why women can’t “just leave”. She writes: “You have your own reasons for staying in your relationship right now. Maybe you’re financially dependent on your partner or you’re afraid they’ll out your immigration status, HIV status, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Maybe you love your partner. Maybe you’re afraid of what they’ll do if you leave.”
This is where the community comes in.
The community needs to send a message to women who have been subjected to domestic violence that when they are ready to leave, help will be available.
And while we’re sending messages, can we send a neon-bright one to perpetrators that their behaviour will no longer be tolerated?
NSW Deputy Premier and Police Minister Troy Grant is one person who has had a gutful.
Mr Grant is an ex-policeman who has seen the brutality first hand.
Writing for The Daily Telegraph yesterday, he said: “My enduring memory from my days as a police officer was returning again and again to the same doorsteps to find the same scene. It was the same families hiding bruises, with police hands tied to target repeat domestic violence offenders as much as they would like. Today this changes. We announce high-visibility Domestic Violence High Risk Offender Teams to target repeat offenders and our hope is families will not have to live through violence a second, third and fourth time.”
“Every woman, man and child deserves to feel safe in their own homes. They should never be forced to live in fear of the violent reactions of another.
“General duties police are often the first responders when domestic violence is reported. This new trial of Domestic Violence High Risk Offender Teams will offer specialist expertise to target repeat habitual offenders. The specialist officers will provide support to other police with information and intelligence, while forming partnerships for victim support including monitoring outstanding offenders, repeat victims and repeat offenders.
“We are fast-tracking the placement of 24 domestic violence liaison officers who will be there to support the victims. To do this well, we need your help. We need you to report suspicion of abuse, as we would any other crime.”
Mr Grant goes: “Similarly it is not acceptable to suspect domestic violence is occurring and not report it. Additionally, the NSW government has a strategy to improve the criminal justice system’s response to domestic violence.”
Finally, if I could end with Mr Grant’s words: “We need a cultural change to create the community we deserve to live in.
“To properly stamp out domestic violence, it’s up to government to support police on the frontline and all of us to refuse to turn a blind eye to anyone with a black eye.”