Domestic violence: Take a stand against abuse

NEWLY minted Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s decision to inject $100 million into the fight against domestic violence is to be applauded.

Boxer Floyd Mayweather was stopped from visiting Australia.

NEWLY minted Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s decision to inject $100 million into the fight against domestic violence is to be applauded.

It’s one thing for political leaders to say the right thing but it’s another to put policy into action.

Rhetoric must be matched with real dollars and tangible results.

For almost three years the Herald Sun has led a campaign to highlight the need to tackle the often hidden scourge of family violence.

As part of this newspaper’s Take a Stand initiative, a spotlight has been shone on the mounting deaths and family destruction wrought by domestic violence.

The true extent of this emergency is hidden behind matter-of-fact crime statistics and the fear and stigma that has previously seen victims unwilling to report.

Too often, especially female victims and their children have been held prisoner in their private lives by violent partners.

Public campaigns and a renewed focus on support will hopefully encourage those victims to escape the violent cycle and prevent another generation of partner abuse.

No one has been more effective on this front, and as a symbol of resilience in the face of tragedy, than Australian of the Year Rosie Batty, whose 11-year-old son, Luke, was brutally killed by his deranged father.

Funding announced yesterday will provide a trial for safe phones for women, a national hotline, GPS trackers for perpetrators, the installation of CCTV cameras and other safety equipment in certain homes and a grant to the Salvation Army to work with security experts to conduct risk assessments on victim’s homes and change locks.

Extra funding will help Mensline with education and prevention initiatives. Police and welfare agencies will also improve information sharing on at-risk cases and lawyers will attend hospital emergency departments to identify and offer assistance to victims.

Crucially, money needs to go towards helping provide emergency accommodation to allow victims the chance to leave abusive environments. Emergency housing is especially lacking in rural and regional areas where smaller communities leave victims with a sense that they can’t escape.

Of course, it often should not be victims and children forced to move.

Greater emphasis needs to be placed on requiring the offender to move — saving victims from further having lives disrupted by lost work opportunities or changing schools.

It’s not just significant money the Federal Government plans on throwing at the crisis.

While not the first international celebrity to be banned from entering Australia on character grounds, US singer Chris Brown may be refused a visa due to his prior domestic violence offending.

Brown was sentenced to five years’ probation in 2009 for assaulting his then girlfriend, fellow pop artist Rihanna.

Boxer Floyd Mayweather was stopped from visiting Australia.

As well as media highlighting the blight of domestic violence, and education programs in schools, banning Brown is all about sending a message — particularly to our youth — that it is simply never okay to subject a partner or children to violence. Our new Minister for Women, Michaelia Cash, who previously stopped boxer Floyd Mayweather from visiting Australia, believes Brown may yet face the same fate.

The fight against domestic violence is far from over but at last we have a Federal Government willing to put real dollars behind real action.

UNION OFF THE RAILS

THE Rail Tram and Bus Union appears to have taken a leaf out of the CFMEU’s archaic playbook for industrial confrontation and intransigence.

It was only two weeks ago that Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union heavy John Setka celebrated Grand Final week as a good opportunity for unions to take action to hurt Victorians as leverage in disputes.

Note to the RTBU and CFMEU: it’s now 2015, not 1985.

Victorians cannot be held to ransom by idealism and strike action designed to further the cause of unionists.

As a government-funded and subsidised industry, the public transport system must run efficiently.

Further investment can be made off the back of productivity gains within the transport workforce.

That is not to say that workers’ rights, fair entitlement and a priority on safety and training should be jettisoned.

But it does mean constructive negotiation with the system operators — Metro and Yarra Trams.

Who could argue in these economically challenging times that a pay rise in the order of 17 per cent for rail transport workers is not a generous offer?

Holding the state hostage to details like replacing 26 drivers with upskilled maintenance personnel to move trains within workshops is union bloody-mindedness.

The RTBU and Metro were last night back at the negotiating table but must stay there until sensible agreement is reached.

Victorians deserve nothing less.