Family Violence Must End

Herald-Sun - 22/07/2013

For generations, family violence has been Victoria's hidden disgrace.
We might have known it under another name. A domestic. A bloke giving his missus a touch-up. A private dispute. And none of our business.

It's none of these things. It's not a dispute and it's not just a domestic. It's a crime. It almost always involves a man attacking a woman. And it is everyone's business.

It's time for us to get involved. It's time for all Victorians to say enough is enough.

Today, the Herald Sun is launching a campaign called Take a Stand to confront the scourge of family violence in our community. The campaign will not make for comfortable reading. Family violence is devastating.

Every week in Australia, a woman dies at the hands of her partner or ex-partner. In Victoria, it's the leading contributor to preventable death, illness and disability in women aged 15-44 years.

It costs the Victorian economy $3.4 billion a year in police and courts costs, hospital time, ambulance response, lost productivity and support.

It will be hard for all of us to confront the reality that is family violence. It may mean we have to accept that the mate from work, the good bloke from the footy club, or the friendly neighbour from down the street is beating his partner and possibly his children behind closed doors.
But the figures do not lie.

Last year, police responded to a record 50,382 family violence reports in Victoria. Of these callouts, 16,046 were assaults in the home. The overwhelming majority of the victims were women, bashed and beaten by their partners or ex-partners.
 
It must stop.

Premier Denis Napthine, Chief Commissioner Ken Lay, Lord Mayor Robert Doyle and AFL chief Andrew Demetriou accepted an invitation from theHerald Sun to take a stand against family violence.

They are speaking not just as community leaders, but as fathers and husbands, when they declare that the community will no longer tolerate violence in the family home. You can read their powerful words today in our news pages, and see their video messages at heraldsun.com.au.
A unique opportunity currently exists for Victorians to address the dreadful crime of family violence.

These four influential men have called on other men to take responsibility. End the violence. Speak up. Teach your sons that violence is wrong. Tell your female friends that help is available. Don't turn away when you know violence is happening.

Mr Lay has declared family violence one of the most significant law-and-order problems we are facing.

He says it is time to turn the focus away from the female victims and make the male perpetrators face up to the consequences of their actions.
And he called on all men in our community to do their bit, by ostracising and vilifying other men who they know to be violent.

"There should be men, and they're usually leaders, who need to be able to stand up and take a stand," he told the Herald Sun.

"It's not just me. It's corporate leaders, it's government. It's sporting leaders, it's people that actually can look men in the eye and say 'that is not appropriate'."

THE recent deaths of young women Jill Meagher, Sarah Cafferkey and Elsa Corp highlighted real community concern about violence against women, and attitudes towards women.

Mr Lay says those attitudes, and violence, go hand in hand.

The Victorian community was so outraged at the death of Ms Meagher that 30,000 people walked down Sydney Rd in Brunswick (main picture) in a peaceful protest.

The police have faced up to their inadequacies in the way they historically dealt with family violence, and made significant changes. Now, they have 27 dedicated family violence units that handle the complaints. Domestic or family violence is treated with the same seriousness as random crime.

It's time for the rest of us to treat it seriously too.

We have made many positive changes in the way we deal with family violence. Legislative changes such as intervention orders give victims some protection. But we must not be complacent. As the Herald Sun will show you over the next few days, intervention orders do not always work, and are sometimes not enough to keep victims safe.

Victorians well remember the plight of Sargun Ragi, the woman murdered by her jealous husband in Kew in October. She had come to Australia from India to build a new life and a career.

But the 23-year-old was stabbed to death and set on fire by her estranged husband, Avjit Singh, 31, who was infuriated because she had dared to leave him and seek an intervention order against him. An intervention order had been taken out against him just 10 days before.

Singh, a violent, controlling man, beat and starved his isolated and terrified wife before she was finally able to leave him and seek sanctuary in a new house. He burned that to the ground and killed himself.

A haunting photograph of the pair together, published by the Herald Sunafter her death, show a tiny, delicate Ms Ragi, nervously looking at the camera as her much larger, intimidating husband looms at her side.

Ms Ragi's sad story is, unfortunately, just one of many in which a woman abides by the requirements of the justice system, seeks the appropriate orders - but pays a terrible price.

We can't tell you about the others, because of an unintended problem with the law that emerged in 2008.

The Family Violence Protection Act 2008 contains a clause - number 166 - that stops the media from reporting when a person takes an intervention order out against their partner or former partner. It was apparently designed to protect the privacy of the victims. The Herald Sun respects that decision.

However, it also means that we are unable to give our readers the full story surrounding some of the most horrific crimes in this state.

It means that in recent years, we have been unable to tell you about a high-profile sportsman jailed for breaching an intervention order taken out by his girlfriend. Or another prominent identity who harassed his former wife mercilessly and breached his intervention orders over and over again - but is now back on the social set with a new girlfriend.

The Herald Sun was able to tell you about the intervention order failings in Ms Ragi's case only by seeking a court order, which was granted mostly because Singh was dead.

This anomaly must be addressed for the safety of all Victorians. Intervention orders are among the best weapons victims - mostly women - have, and they should continue to have faith in them. But the courts, the Government and the police must continue to work to improve them, and improve the responses when they are breached. Sargun Ragi is just one who payed the ultimate price.

Twenty years ago, our community faced up to another confronting problem - sexual abuse by clergy and those involved in institutions.
Back in the '90s, the few brave victims who spoke out found it difficult to have their voices heard.

Police were reluctant to get involved. The courts were unsure how to handle it. The media found it difficult to report.

TWO decades on, and the community response has matured. Police and the courts take complaints of sexual abuse extremely seriously. 

Victims are comfortable to speak out. A royal commission is under way to hold the perpetrators - individuals and institutions - to account.

This is where we need to be with family violence.

For too long victims have suffered in silence, trapped by community indifference, or embarrassment.

It's time to take a stand and say no to family violence. We need to act now, before more women are killed and injured, tortured, terrified and driven out of their own homes.

Ken Lay says that: "History is littered with a whole host of stories where friends and relatives haven't had the courage or good sense to stand up and protect women who are being abused in their homes. There's lots of stories about those women who have ended up as victims of a homicide or victims of very, very serious assaults."

We can't rewrite history. But we can write a new chapter. The Herald Sun pledges to do what it can to advocate for victims of family violence.

We urge our readers to Take a Stand and join us.

Click here to replay a Live Blog from Fiona McCormack, CEO of Domestic Violence Victoria, from 23/07/2013.