One in three Australian women over the age of 15 have experienced physical violence, one in five have experienced sexual violence, indigenous women and girls are 35 times more likely to be hospitalised due to family violence and on average one woman is killed every week by a former partner or current partner in Australia.
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On top of that, 95 per cent of violence that happens in Australia, whether against males or females, is committed by men.
These are some of the shocking statistics that were heard last Friday during Moree’s White Ribbon Day events during which the community took a powerful stand against domestic violence.
More than 50 people, including students from Moree Secondary College, Moree East Public School and Moree Public School, as well as service providers, community members and local police came together to march along Balo Street before listening to a number of powerful speeches by prominent men in the community who chose to stand up and speak out at the Multipurpose Centre.
Barwon Local Area Command Superintendent Paul McDonald said domestic violence is a major issue for the command, particularly Moree which is ranked in the top five local government areas for domestic violence related assaults, with approximately 550 reported incidents.
“That’s roughly three per day,” he said. “It’s too much. Out of that, one in three are repeated victims.
“As a community we need to acknowledge that men’s violence against women is a serious and prevelent issue.
“I would encourage all of you to think about what you personally can do to put a stop to domestic and sexual violence and not be an innocent bystander if you know of someone experiencing these personal violence crimes. If you hear something or see something, stand up, speak up and take action.”
Moree Secondary College principal Peter Sheargold said that as a principal for more than 20 years, he’s seen first-hand the impact that violence against women has on children.
He spoke of the reaction the boys at the school had recently when they learned of the shocking statistics.
“The boys were shocked, as you could imagine. But what brought it home to them was not just the numbers but the fact that there were lives attached to those numbers,” he said.
“We talked about the fact that they were their mothers, their aunties, their sisters that we were talking about.
“Sadly some of the boys moved very uncomfortably or looked away while Jamie [Sampson] was speaking to them and no doubt they have witnessed violence, they were reminded, embarrassed or confronted by what we were talking about.
“We think about what can we do as a school, what can Moree Secondary College do, how do we fit into the big picture about helping our community stop the violence against women.
“The first step is to recognise that it’s an issue that confronts us all and the next thing is that my male staff have to accept that part of our responsibility as men and as educators is to be role models for our students, to role model the behaviour that we expect in our boys and to remind them every day the vital role that they play in this situation.
“Our job at Moree Secondary College is to ensure that every young man that leaves our school is leaving with a determination to make the issue of women’s safety a man’s issue too.”
Local solicitor and former No Violence Alliance (NoVA) committee member Dominic Wilcox also spoke on Friday and warned people to not stand by when they see or hear domestic violence but to take action.
“We become complicit in it when we see it and we do nothing; because we’re too scared to do something, because we feel someone else will surely do something about it or because we don’t know what to do. This is called the bystander effect,” he said.
“The best way to counteract [the bystander effect] is to give people a solid, easy-to-implement action plan for when they do witness something that needs reporting. In the case of violence against women, that should always be to report it to the police, to check if the victim’s okay, to see if they need any help and to refer them to a service, whether it’s to a local women’s refuge or one of our local services or even just giving them the number of 1800 RESPECT.
“It’s only when we put into place a positive action plan of how to combat violence against women, that white ribbon day becomes more than just another day of window-dressing and pinning a ribbon onto our jacket, only to forget about it when we go home, and instead becomes a constant and active and meaningful commitment to action.”
As a worker at Byamee Proclaimed Place, the fourth guest speaker, Jared Lidgerwood, regularly comes into contact with victims of domestic and family violence.
He believes it’s up to men to lead the way in stopping violence against women and girls and encouraged all men to act respectfully towards women.
“Do not accept behaviour from yourself or from anyone else that belittles, intimidates, threatens or directly harms a woman or anyone else for that matter,” he said.
“And if your mate says something disrespectful or acts disrespectfully towards a female, be a man and call him out on it, tell him that it’s not on, report it to the police, report it to the domestic violence hotline if you think someone’s in danger.
“For women, support each other, be there for your friends, seek assistance if you or someone you know is experiencing violence or abuse. And if you have a friend that’s experiencing domestic violence please remember that it might be part of that abuse that their partner is deliberately isolating them from you and their other friends. Keep being there for her, support her, do not judge her, call someone for help.
“And for you young kids, lots of times people are able to keep being violent because they’re bigger, stronger and they’re scarier and that’s never okay. If you guys are scared of someone in your family or anyone else, if they’re hurting you or someone you know, call the police, talk to an adult that you trust and tell them about it. It is never ever wrong to do that.
“All of us today can work today and everyday to make everyone around us safe from violence.”
