❤️SHE MATTERS: UNNAMED WOMAN!❤️
A man brutally assaulted his partner on a lonely walking track and then he abandoned her. She was found on that path close to midnight on September 26. She had died. At the time, it was thought her death was not suspicious but eventually, internal injuries were discovered by the forensic pathologist and a week later, that man was charged with her domestic violence murder at Casuarina in the Northern Territory. She is the 53rd Australian woman killed this year and the 158th woman killed since January 1 of 2024. Just 10 days earlier, another Aboriginal woman was murdered and her partner has also been charged. Indeed, from September 16 to September 26 we lost four women to acts of violence across Australia – all killed by men known to them.
And so it goes on. Week after week. Month after month. Year after year. The relentless tide of femicide across our country.
The NT has one of the highest domestic violence femicide tolls in our country. Yet the government there is more focused on ‘anti-social behaviour’ and crime against white people’s property than it is on saving women’s lives.
A friend who works daily with women facing violence in the NT told me there has been an increase in funding but: “If you look at the breakdown of funding, it’s not all wise decisions.”
She says: “Over $6m has gone to a youth child protection program, which is looking primarily at anti-social behaviour and not adequately doing early intervention for domestic violence – so why should they get DV funding?”
She tells me the government took about $10m from the domestic violence shelter in Darwin and gave it to the Department of Corrections because of the overflowing prison population.
The NT Government is supposedly rolling out a ‘roadmap to ensure service delivery is outcome-focused and driven by those with lived experience’.
Sadly, that plan is not being informed by women experiencing abuse.
“To say the roadmap is being driven by those with lived experience is just so fucking wrong,” my friend says.
THIS UNNAMED WOMAN MATTERS! ❤️
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