Tory Shepherd: Hannah Clarke’s murder has brought ugly truth to the surface

If the murder of Hannah Clarke has shown us anything, it’s that mens rights activists are determined to make it as hard as possible for women to leave abusive relationships, writes Tory Shepherd.

In a parallel universe, Hannah Clarke would still be living with her husband, Rowan Baxter.

She would still be in that coercive, abusive relationship. Controlled, beaten, fearing for her life. Fearing for her children. Fearing she wouldn’t be believed. Fearing she would have to leave her children with him if she left.

So she’d stay, for as long as she lived. Which, given the nature of domestic violence, might not have been long anyway. She might be trapped by a lack of options and a reluctance to pull the trigger on a relationship even when it seems obvious some trigger will be pulled, at some point.

This is a universe various fringe groups dream about, and they want to make that dream real. To make it harder for women to leave, and to be believed. And they’re talking to our federal parliament through a committee inquiry into family law.

So much has been written about Hannah Clarke since her estranged husband immolated her and her young children and took his own life.

The focus has shifted, in part, to having yet another inquiry into how to stop domestic violence. Yet more talking.

So much has been written about Hannah Clarke since her estranged husband murdered her and her young children and took his own life. Picture: Facebook

It has also shifted to the way some people talk about victims of gendered violence. The way some people grit their teeth and try to twist the story into one where the perpetrator is, somehow, the victim.

It was saddening and maddening to follow the reaction to Queensland Detective Inspector Mark Thompson’s comments about whether the system drove Baxter to his heinous act. Kate Kyriacou, writing in The Courier-Mail, gave more context to what he meant when he said people “out there” might be wondering whether it was “an instance of a husband being driven too far by issues that he’s suffered by certain circumstances into committing acts of this form”. From his other comments, it’s clear he didn’t mean that was what he thought, but he botched his words.

And if you’re familiar with the movement that is actively trying to create that parallel universe, his words were tinder to a firebox that’s been smouldering for a while. I don’t think he meant to set the spark. But the feeds of all the fact-twisting men’s rights activist (MRA) groups I follow showed the danger of such carelessness.

MRAs (including Bettina Arndt) immediately seized on his words to tell their hurt, angry followers that the Queensland police were on their side. That the family courts were screwing them so badly it was almost inevitable they’d commit acts of violence.

Hannah Clarke and her children. Picture: Facebook

The family-law inquiry, the most recent of many, was sparked by One Nation’s Pauline Hanson, who routinely casts doubt on women’s claims of domestic violence. She called for the inquiry because, for a very long time, she’s been in thrall to angry men who falsely believe they are the wronged ones in family separations. She won the inquiry because the Federal Government wants her vote.

There’s a long history to this belligerent and violent men’s rights movement. Men who can’t believe they are denied their women, their children, even though they were bashing them. It’s a vicious form of entitlement. They bash, then when the bashed leave, they are driven to kill.

Submissions from various groups to the inquiry are as predictable as they are repulsive. They argue women routinely make false allegations of domestic violence (they don’t). They argue taking children away from abusive fathers will only increase family violence.

They use a pseudoscientific theory called parental alienation, a debunked “theory” that claims women make up abuse to manipulate children into hating their fathers. They refer to each other’s bunkum as evidence, setting up a circle jerk of rubbish claims.

For years they’ve been trying to set up this false narrative, this parallel universe, to stop courts believing women, to make it harder for women to leave, to make it easier for abusive fathers to keep custody of children. And every time someone in power seems to be repeating their narrative, that parallel universe becomes a little more real for them, and a little more of a black hole for vulnerable women.

For help call 1800 RESPECT or Mensline Aust on 1300 78 99 78

Originally published as Tory Shepherd: Hannah Clarke’s murder has brought ugly truth to the surface