Stark reality of DV figures
Despite a royal commission and millions of dollars being spent to prevent domestic violence, women and children are still being murdered at an alarming rate in Australia.
This was the stark message carried by anti-domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty, who reflected on the 10 years that have passed since her 11year-old son Luke was murdered by his father while at cricket training on February 12, 2014.
“Truth be told, the decade gone by weighs heavily on me in many ways. No day goes by when I don’t think about Luke,” Ms Batty told the National Press Club.
“No awards, no applause and no accolades will bring him back to me.
“But, as we continue to change the story on domestic violence in this country, I take some comfort in knowing that I honour his memory in everything I do.”
Ms Batty, one of the nation’s most prominent family violence prevention advocates and 2015 Australian of the Year, said despite the hundreds of speeches, campaigns, marches and a royal commission into family violence in Victoria held in the years following the tragedy, rates of family violence and violence against women across Australia remained stubbornly high.
“One woman a week is murdered by her current or former partner. Last year, 64 women were killed in incidents of violence in Australia,” she said on Wednesday.
“Yet regardless of these staggering statistics, many still cling to the misguided belief that violence is an issue that happens elsewhere, to other people.
“But violence is happening, in every community, every suburb, and it’s happening to people you know.”
The number of known deaths due to violence against women in 2024 stands at 16, according to the research group Counting Dead Women Australia.