Domestic Violence

I am very concerned about the lack of support for victims of domestic violence and the lack of information about this issue in our general community. Domestic violence affects a wide range of people from our community: rich and poor, educated or not, young and old, men and women.

In the majority of D.V. cases, it is men perpetrating violence against women but violence committed by adult children against their parents is increasingly common.
Identifying D.V. can be hard, let alone taking action to stop it. Many men, for example, are in denial about their violent behaviour, verbal or physical, and choose not to acknowledge the terrible, dehumanising results of their actions.

The first step in dealing with the huge problem of D.V. is with education: we all need to understand how to respect each other and when to draw the line with bad behaviour. In the context of close relationships, personal boundaries often get blurred: people can end up hurting the ones they love, or being scared of someone they thought they could trust and this confusion affects all other areas of their lives.

One way to promote awareness of these issues would be increased advertising on television. David Gallop, director of the National Rugby League, claims the NRL are at the forefront of campaigns condemning violence against women. If so, why can't we see some footballers talking about domestic violence and how to avoid it? Sportsmen advertise muesli bars and weet-bix; it's about time they used their platform to raise awareness of something important with particular relevance to their own community. Imagine the impact of a discussion of domestic violence on 'the Footy Show'?