Less than 24 hours after the tragedy,her eloquent voice made Australians sit up and listen in that summer of 2014. The next year,the nation recognised her courage in shining a light on domestic violence victims and the Victorian mother was named Australian of the Year.
She resolved to use her 12 months in the public’s eye to bring the problem of family violence into the spotlight. She wanted all Australians to know:one in three women experiences violence at the hands of someone they know. On average,one woman is killed every week by an intimate partner. One in four children has been exposed to domestic violence. She had no intention of being patient.
Now,as part of the16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence campaign,Batty looks back on nearly a decade of activism,disheartened and exhausted. “When Ifirst lost Luke,I didn’t realise how difficult and how long change would take,”she told theHerald. “When I sit in front of the news and I see there’s another fatality … I don’t think anything’s changing.”
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Overall,the number of deaths has fallen but,given that governments around Australia have since channelled millions of dollars into resources and campaigns aimed at reducing the toll,not by much.
When Batty started campaigning in 2014,82 women died that year,according to activist websiteCounting Dead Women Australia,which collects figures based on media-reported crimes. In 2022,82 were killed. This year,the website lists 56 victims as of November 27.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese marked the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women by calling on men to step up. “It isn’t just the job of governments. Changing the attitudes that entrench inequality and discrimination and objectify women and disregard consent is everyone’s responsibility,” Albanese said.
The government had invested $2.3 billion in women’s safety initiatives,sped up access to financial and casework support for victims,and legislated 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave for all workers. TheNational Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022–32 announced last August aimed to reduce the number of women killed by intimate partners by 25 per cent a year,improve understanding of violence against women and support for gender equality in the community and halve the rate of domestic/family violence and abuse against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children by 2031.Indigenous women are 11 times more likely than non-Indigenous women to be murdered in Australia.