Domestic violence crisis: How do we end this nightmare?

We are in the grip of a domestic violence epidemic in this country. Innocent victims are being killed by people they loved. Someone, anyone, please do something to stop this hell, writes Lucy Carne.

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ANKLE trackers. Highway billboards advertising death tolls. Preschool prevention programs. Training for hairdressers to spot warning signs. Tougher prosecution of protection order breaches. More family courts. More royal commissions.

Everyone seems to have a suggestion on what should be done to deal with our domestic violence epidemic.

But will anything actually work? Is there truly a solution that could possibly make a difference to this desperately painful national crisis?

One woman is killed every nine days and 17 adults are hospitalised every day due to assaults by a partner or family member, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2016 Personal Safety Survey.

Australia ranks eighth for domestic violence against women out of G20 countries, according to the OECD.

Even the United Nations said in 2017 that Australia’s violence against women is “disturbingly common and continues to have a significant negative impact”.

People pay respects to Hannah Clarke and her three children at Raven Street where they were set alight and murdered by Rowan Baxter on the way to school. Photographer: Liam Kidston

But once the charred grass has regrown on Raven Street in Camp Hill in Brisbane’s south east and lives moves on, will we still remember the names Hannah Clarke, Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, 4 and Trey, 3?

Or will they blur into the murky memories of murdered mothers, wives and children?

They are there alongside Cynda, her daughter Katrina and children Taye, 13, Rylan, 12, Ayre, 10, and 8-year-old Kayden, who were shot dead by Peter Miles in Margaret River in 2019.

And Tara Brown who was run off the road and beaten to death with a fire hydrant cover by her boyfriend in 2015 on the Gold Coast.

Maria Claudia Lutz Pena with her children Martin and Elisa. Picture: Facebook

There is also Elisa Manrique and her younger brother, Martin, as well as their Colombian-born mother Claudia Lutz who were gassed to death in their Sydney home.

Katherine Knight, Luke Batty, Orla Holt, Maria Korp, Allison Baden-Clay and Darcey Freeman.

There is the New South Wales mother whose name cannot be revealed, whose husband burned her to death in the family home in front of their two children in 2018. Her body was found trapped beneath a barred window.

And then there is our latest victim, the 49-year-old woman stabbed to death yesterday morning in Townsville in what police said was a domestic violence attack.

We have failed all of these people.

We let Hannah down.

She was simply doing her normal routine of rushing out the door and jumping into the car to take her children to school.

She did not know that the father of her children would be waiting to ambush her, carrying petrol, a lighter and a kitchen knife.

Tara Brown. Picture: Supplied

Allison Baden-Clay. Picture: Supplied

This was a predator who did not lay his fists on his wife, according to her family, but who tortured her with manipulation, coercion and sexual abuse.

Hannah didn’t carry the black eye of abuse. It was hidden behind her beautiful smile.

His control was subtle, in the leggings she always was forced to wear at the gym, in his refusal to let her spend money, in his jealousy that she was adored by her friends and was better at CrossFit.

Calling him a “monster” attributes a pathetic pantomime characteristic.

He was a man, a husband and a father, who would turn to his babies in their car seats, douse them in petrol and set them on fire.

When he could no longer control them, he selfishly killed them all.

As the poor woman who was stabbed to death in Townsville proves, this will not be the last person to kill his loved ones.

Someone please do something, anything to stop this hell.

How much more can we take?

Our hearts break for them all.

Lucy Carne is editor of Rendezview.com.au

For 24-hour support phone Queensland’s DVConnect on 1800 811 811 or MensLine on 1800 600 636, NSW’s Domestic Violence Line on 1800 656 463 or the national hotline 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732).