Eradicate domestic violence within a generation, Rosie Batty says

Former Australian of the Year Rosie Batty has called for a dedicated federal minister for children while declaring the nation can’t ‘aim for anything less’ than ending domestic violence.

Rosie Batty at the National Press Club on Wednesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Victim-survivor and former Australian of the Year, Rosie Batty, has called for a dedicated federal minister for children while declaring the nation can’t “aim for anything less” than eradicating violence against women and children within a generation.

Ms Batty, who’s 11-year-old son Luke was murdered by his father 10 years ago, said appointing a dedicated children’s minister would be “an important step” towards addressing domestic and family violence.

“Let’s commit to listening to children’s voices,” the 2015 Australian of the Year told the National Press Club on Wednesday.

“I think that is a really … important step. I am proud to be a patron of the Australian Childhood Foundation, very sadly, the CEO (Joe Tucci) died recently and he was a very inspiring man in the rights of children. This is exactly the very thing he also would like to see.

“I think that is a really important step and we should really encourage the government to take that very seriously.”

Ms Batty’s comments come amid calls from other advocates such as National Children’s Commissioner Anne Hollands for Labor to appoint a dedicated children’s minister that would oversee all policies impacting children.

Ms Batty also questioned whether the $368bn nuclear submarine project was the best use of taxpayer money when domestic violence services were still chronically underfunded.

“We are talking about stopping this within a generation. It’s gone all throughout my lifetime, generations of women before us. This problem isn’t going away,” she said.

“We need to make sure we are investing in the solutions with not just piecemeal scraps of money going in to program some pilots, there needs to be significant strategy.”

When asked what the government needed to do to show their money was where their mouth was, Ms Batty joked that others advocates in the room probably had a range of answers.

And when one advocate in the audience yelled out “don’t spend it on submarines”, Ms Batty agreed.

“Very good answer … The threat of terrorism is more likely to occur in our own home. Where you’re supposed to be safe,” she said.

“Women were much safer when we knew our place, when we didn’t aspire for anything more than being grateful for the traditional roles that we had.”

Ms Batty said she was “disappointed” emergency measures delivered through Covid-19, including higher JobSeeker payments, had been rolled back and that the urgency in policymaking during the pandemic was not matched by governments when it came to preventing women and children from dying in domestic family violence incidents.

“Look at what happened during Covid, we didn’t leave our homes, were not able to travel, laws were passed, policies made. It’s amazing what you can do when public health is under threat,” she said.

“We can do this. It is possible … I think what we really do need is an investment of serious funding, long-term funding to give organisations that work every day towards either the prevention or early intervention or crisis response … certainty.”

Ms Batty said the country needed to implement co-ordinated and well-resourced domestic violence prevention strategies similar to those that had been launched to stop smoking and drink driving.

“We have seen the prevention strategies in transforming the societal attitudes towards issues like smoking and drink-driving. Through public health campaigns we have shifted the cultural norms that condone these behaviours to a place where they are no longer acceptable,” she said.

Despite admitting she had fallen victim to “despair” and “pessimism” over the years, Ms Batty said she had seen “thousands of small steps” towards lowering domestic violence rates.

“We no longer condone inappropriate behaviours off the (sporting) pitch. We are holding the culture to account. That is important progress,” she said.

“You are more likely now, through very important work and the horrendous experience the people like Brittany Higgins have gone through, to have accountability for sexual harassment in workplaces.”