Joe Hildebrand: Get outraged but direct it the right way and not at those trying to help

Is murder a political problem or a practical one? That is the question activists need to ask themselves as they embark on another campaign of protest against domestic violence that has become about outrage instead of change, writes Joe Hildebrand.

Is murder a political problem or a practical one?

That is the question activists need to ask themselves as they embark on yet another campaign of protest against domestic violence that has, yet again, become about outrage instead of change.

It is a dark farce. Every once in a while a spate of attacks on women or an especially horrific case will spark a “national conversation” or a “national emergency”.

This naturally demands a “national response”. Perhaps a royal commission or a truth-telling or a roundtable or a public education campaign — like some ads that tell men not to kill women.

Strangely they do not appear to work. Despite all the hyperawareness of and public declarations against domestic violence over the past decade and more the scourge remains.

Indeed by some measures it is getting worse. Countless stories claimed the Morrison government had a “women problem” and that this was fuelling sexism and misogyny.

Yet in the last two years, coinciding with the election of the Albanese government, we are told by the Nine Newspapers that the reported incidence of violence has increased by almost 7 per cent in NSW alone.

Thus if it was really about politics one might conclude that violence against women increases with the election of progressive governments.

But of course this is bunkum. Bollocks. Bullshit.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaking at the No More! event organiser alongside Sarah Williams. Picture NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Incredibly, despite all the angry noise, there has been almost no comprehensive evidence-based analysis of the factors that cause and enable domestic violence in Australia.

The Australian Institute of Criminology observed this in a groundbreaking 2019 report that combed through scores of research papers and hundreds and thousands of documents.

It was reported on the front page of our national newspaper and recast by myself in this masthead and on the nation’s biggest news site but was curiously and studiously ignored by those supposedly most concerned.

One key finding taken from a 2016 study was that 2 per cent of offenders were responsible for 50 per cent of offences. In other words half of all these horrors could be wiped out by incarcerating a tiny number of repeat violent abusers.

You don’t hear that fact much. But just imagine the women alive and safe today if it had been taken seriously.

Instead there is a rah-rah parade of outrage dressed up in vague accusations of miasmic patriarchy and misogyny instead of hard and fast action against known violent perpetrators. Apparently the answer is to get angrier instead of putting attackers behind bars.

All of this became a primordial hot mess when the Prime Minister made the rather human mistake of thinking he could attend a rally to show his support for victims of domestic violence without being howled down for being … well, the Prime Minister.

In the farcical pantomime that followed he appeared to be told that he wasn’t doing enough but that he shouldn’t even speak and then after a bizarre kind of mob-roar poll it was decided that he should speak after all.

Amid this an understandably confused Anthony Albanese can be seen seeming to ask someone behind him what on earth was going on. It would have been a fair question.

Eventually he rather mildly says I’m here, I’m the Prime Minister, do you want me to speak or not? And as the crowd chants they want him to speak he is given the mic and — shock horror! — he speaks.

Then, if memory serves, he is heckled for saying he was asked not to speak by the organiser who had just said she didn’t want him to speak.

This is more cooked than a bad batch of meth. But worse it is both moronic and tragic.

These activists had in the palm of their hand a Prime Minister willing to do anything to fight the scourge of domestic violence. But instead of harnessing that goodwill they picked a fight with him.

It is the typical activist response: A focus on hurt feelings instead of hard facts; a desire for outrage instead of outcomes.

Indeed for those who cherish anger, progress is the worst outcome of all because it means there would be less to be angry about.

And so yet again we have another clusterf*ck of the extreme left’s own making. At a watershed moment for progress they kill and consume their own with hysteria and hate. Even a progressive Prime Minister marching in their protest and offering complete support is demonised and vilified for the sake of self-serving rage.

And as a result all these campaigners ended up creating was a new political weapon with which diehard conservatives could mow down a Labor PM using the feminist left as ammunition.

What a grand coalition.

Meanwhile back in the sensible centre Albo has replaced the rhetoric with real action: Cold hard cash to help women escape their abusers.

This alone finally speaks to the other great unspoken truth about domestic violence: It flourishes in poverty and disadvantage. And yet many of these same activists would have us believe it is as prevalent in Double Bay as it is in Dubbo.

So much for helping the poor.

By contrast — and by definition — the government’s financial assistance is focused squarely on the most economically vulnerable because it knows they are also the most vulnerable to violence. It is literally a lifeline.

Give the victims the freedom they deserve and deprive the bastards of theirs. That will do more to stop the deaths than a thousand rally cries.

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Originally published as Joe Hildebrand: Get outraged but direct it the right way and not at those trying to help