Men can no longer be ignored in family violence

UnitedFuture President and gender affairs spokesperson Judy Turner has reiterated her party’s stance that men need to be treated equally alongside women and children when it comes to family violence.

“The Family Violence Death Review Committee issued figures in its annual report to Parliament today that are truly shocking,” said Mrs Turner.

13 women, 12 men and 16 children were killed last year as a result of family violence incidents.

“While the total of 41 deaths is appalling and the number of children represented absolutely tragic, it is the high number of men killed that will come as a surprise to many.”

“Men made up nearly one third of all deaths in the statistics released yet there is almost a total ignorance of men as the victims of family violence from both advocacy groups and within government policy.”

“Quite rightly there have been a number of extremely effective media campaigns in the last few years; however those have focussed almost entirely on women and to a lesser extent children, with men involved purely as the perpetrators of violence.”

“Shouldn’t the focus be about stopping violence against all family members no matter what their age or gender?”

“The anti-male bias in media campaigns and government programs is not helpful in my view and merely says to men who suffer from abuse at home that they do not matter and have nobody to turn to.”

“Why do we ignore an entire segment of victims?”

“This Government needs to send a signal to men that they matter too, acknowledging men as sufferers of family violence and including men’s advocates in policy-making around family violence would be a good start,” said Mrs Turner.

ENDS

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