Last weekend there were rallies across Australia in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, with more planned across Australian cities and regions protesting against murders attributed to Family and Sexual Violence (FVSV).

Twenty-five women have died this year in Australia due to gender-based violence and this has fuelled anger across the nation, where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus say male violence in Australia is an "epidemic" with one woman being killed every four days and they will join the rallies today.

If these murder rates continue throughout the year, then this will translate to 2.8% murders in Australia per year per head of population attributed to FVSV.

But across the ditch in NZ things are far far worse. New Zealand’s FVSV murder rate is 6.1% per head of population or about two times the rate in Australia but no NZ Politicians are marching in the streets alongside protestors.

Sir Ray Avery who has launched FVSV prevention programs in NZ, Australia and the USA said "I think the problem in NZ is that we have 'normalised' family and sexual violence in our society".

A research paper published in Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health in December 2023 stated that lifetime experience of FVSV was reported by over half (55.8%) of ever-partnered women.

So more than 50% of NZ males are abusing their partners and so that’s normal, nothing to worry about, or go out and start protesting about.

Sir Ray Avery said, "I love women, they have made me a better man and I am going do everything in my power to protect them and hold the NZ Government and Government agencies to account or failing to protect women in NZ from being murdered and abused by their partners".

I have lobbied Politicians and so-called family violence prevention agencies for funding for support for our proven family and sexual violence prevention program which we want to roll out Nationwide but with no success in NZ.

Sometimes it seems to me that NZ has normalised family and sexual violence to the point that it is just part of our society but there must be other people like me that believe this is morally wrong?

But it has been hard to find champions in Government or Government agencies but if we don’t protect arguably what is the best of us as a species and that is our women then New Zealand will become a wasteland where no one wants to live.

Sir Ray Avery GNZM

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