Domestic Violence

As regional Australia reels from several women’s deaths, advocates seek both policing and prevention. Half of the 26 women who have been killed so far this year have been in regional parts of the country, highlighting a need for more resourcing outside metropolitan areas.

The women keep demanding that more be done to stop domestic violence particularly, but not only, that results in women’s death. The women keep saying that the govt must do more. The keep saying it, and saying it. But what?

What should be done?

Education directed at boys to teach them how to act with women. Yeah, sure, but that’s not going to save anyone’s life in the short term. Better parenting around boys? How do you do that?

The greater policing of AVOs.

Stricter bail laws. I wonder how many men who kill women are on bail? The problem with this one is that bail laws work for the majority of offenders. It is only the minority that we hear about. So, any changes have to be balanced between the two.

What else do they have?

There is a National Action Plan.

I tried to read the National Action Plan. I got interminable links to it, blurb on First Nations People, pages of warnings about the plan and the detail it contained, lots of phone numbers to call if you are in need, but I never seemed to get to the plan itself.

So I gave up looking.

Then I thought, this is ridiculous, I should be able to find the plan.

So, I went over it all again. Then I found the plan. And I got all the phone numbers, again. I got the dedication to First Nations People, again. And the warnings, again.

Then it seemed to set out its objectives, then it summarised those objectives, then it repeated its objectives in the beginning of how the plan would work, all in non discriminatory, neutral language, and then…

Then it just repeated the same points over again, the dedication, the warnings, the objectives.

Then it summarised the objectives… again.

…and then I just kind of lost interest, got distracted and never really read it to the end.

So that's the plan.

Isn’t the problem with domestic violence that all of the acts are kind of random, with little tying them together other than the sex of the perpetrator. They are essentially random acts of violence, aren’t they? And there is no one key factor as the cause. Is there? There is no real pattern. Just angry guys, probably angry for a plethora of reasons, hurting the people they love, or once loved.