By Rachel Eddie
Ballarat will be plastered in an advertising campaign about respecting women and girls after the regional city dealt with the killings of three women in two months.
Premier Jacinta Allan announced the Australian-first four-year trial of the “saturation model” on Friday to expand on the Victorian government’s hopes of bringing about cultural change, a day after proposing to extend police and court-issued safety notices and intervention orders.
The trial will be co-ordinated by Respect Victoria, alongside Ballarat programs already in place, Respect Victoria chair Professor Kate Fitz-Gibbon said.
“It’s about making sure when you walk out onto the street, on public transport we see those critical messages. When you turn on your TV, we’ve got the campaigns. When you go to your sporting clubs, women, girls, boys, men, have access to the same sporting equipment … we don’t say things like ‘kick like a girl’,” Fitz-Gibbon said.
“Making sure these messages come in every single environment that you’re in.”
The premier said the campaign would be geo-targeted on social media to ensure it was reaching people in Ballarat, and local influencers could be brought in to help. The messages will also be spread through classrooms, sporting clubs and workplaces.
“What is particularly important about this saturation model is how we are going to look at using technology to drive the change because we know technology and the use of social media in the spread of toxic content is a big part of the challenge before us,” Allan said.
Fitz-Gibbon said the model had been used internationally in low-income countries with strong results.
“What it shows us is when we saturate an area, when we ensure that everywhere a person lives, learns, works and plays, gives them these messages about healthy, safe, respectful relationships that you can meaningfully drive prevention,” the professor said.
“We want to be able to stand here in four years’ time and tell you what’s changed. I think you’ll see it in your lives.”
She said Ballarat was ready because so much work was already happening in the city.
Family Violence Prevention Minister Vicki Ward said the advertising campaign was part of a whole-of-community response that would help inform the government on how to bring the model statewide.
Three women in the region died violently – allegedly at the hands of men – within two months earlier this year, after a spate of killings around the country and a national debate about gendered violence.
Those women were Rebecca Young, 42, Samantha Murphy, 51 and Hannah McGuire, 23.
“The Ballarat community is a great strong and proud one, but its strength has been tested in recent months,” Allan said on Friday.
Earlier this year, the premier appointed a taskforce of ministers – Ward, Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes and Minister for Women Natalie Hutchins – to find solutions, and on Thursday announced the first reforms.
The government plans to introduce minimum lengths of court-imposed family violence intervention orders.
There is currently no limitation on how long the intervention orders can last, but are generally served for six to 12 months, requiring victim-survivors to return to court for extensions.
Police could also get the power to issue longer safety notices, which last two weeks.
But family violence experts warned the proposal was dangerous because perpetrators were “gaming the system” to convince attending police their victim was actually the aggressor.
Antoinette Braybrook, chief executive of Aboriginal-led family violence prevention and legal service Djirra, said 20 per cent of Aboriginal women they saw had been misidentified as perpetrators and risked having their children removed as a result.
Asked whether vulnerable women would be worse off under the government proposal, Allan said it had come from victim-survivors who were being retraumatised through the courts.
Ward said there were mechanisms in place to resolve misidentification.
The government will work with police and the courts during the consultation to determine when it might be appropriate, and when it isn’t, for longer safety notices to be issued by police.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
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