Saturday 20th of April 2024

in plain sight .....

in plain sight .....

If only the 24 women murdered by their partners or former partners in Australia so far this year had died in a plane crash we might hear about them and have some debate about how to address this systemic issue.

Instead we have by and large ruling class silence on these women. Yet SBS can devote 15 minutes as its first lead article to an airplane crash in France in which 2 Australians died. Australian politicians pontificate about how sad it is.

These are the same politicians who say nothing about domestic violence other than appoint Rosie Batty as the Australian of the Year to salve their consciences and hide their lack of real action.

Worse than that Abbott and co have and are cutting funding for women’s support services.

Violence against women, whether by partners or strangers, is a systemic issue and addressing it would require a real examination of the system that produces it, something no capitalist government will do in any real and substantial way; certainly not the Abbott government.

Not all deaths are the same – Part 1

 

more violent domestic violence...

 

They may have never seen her face but hundreds of strangers will gather in western Sydney on Monday night to remember Linda Locke, another victim in what advocates say is a deepening national domestic violence crisis. 

Two NSW women have allegedly been killed by their partners in the past week, marking one of the worst weeks for domestic violence in the state.

Experts fear that strong pre-election rhetoric is not yet translating into action, with the state government moving a key agency further away from the Premier's department despite promising to put domestic violence "front and centre".

Domestic violence survivors and members of the local community will hold a vigil in Blacktown on Monday to remember Ms Locke, 51, and the 33 other female victims of violence in Australia this year.

Ms Locke, a grandmother of five, died in hospital on Tuesday after her de facto partner, Jamie Walker, allegedly bashed her in their Quakers Hill home.

Two days earlier, an 18-year-old mother was allegedly killed by her ex-boyfriend, reportedly in front of up to 40 people gathered at a home in the western NSW town of Brewarrina. 

Darryl Biles, 22, has been charged with murdering the young woman, whose family have requested she not be identified due to indigenous tradition.

Trish Frail, from the Brewarrina Aborginal Integrated Childcare Centre, said 80 people marched down Brewarrina's main street on Thursday to pay tribute to the woman and take a stand against domestic violence.

"We've noticed there has been a change in the domestic violence," she said. "Nowadays when the perpetrator is addicted to ice, the violence they put their women through is a lot more horrific and savage than what it was 10 years ago."

read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/nsw-domestic-violence-deaths-2-women-dead-in-7-days-20150503-1mypxd.html