Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner Micaela Cronin presented (21 August) a report on Australia’s domestic violence to an audience of sympathetic media feminists at the National Press Club.
I will provide two media reports on Commissar Cronin’s report to lay out the main points. The first (below) is from news.com.au. The second (following) will be from the ABC.
Cronin’s hysterical (emotional, not funny) rant against men regurgitates all the usual accusations against men in cases of ‘domestic violence’ which at least should be called domestic conflict. The correct title should be couple conflict. There is never just one person in couple conflict – to state the obvious.
For Cronin and her feelingly sympathetic feminist audience, the man is always the perpetrator, and the woman is always the victim – the eternal victim. The woman never does anything to provoke conflict. Oh no, never.
Ask the women who fall prey to another woman’s devastating spite, calumny, and backbiting. If a man’s verbal abuse or coercion is rated under ‘domestic violence’, the female’s mouth can be doubly so.
Not only does the ordinary person’s experience speak against such claims against men, but the professional people I cite here cogently argue against that nonsense. I refer one to the articles and research of Bettina Arndt and Janice Fiamengo.
There are, however, two points in Cronin’s presentation that I want to highlight. According to news.com.au ‘she said Australia needed to be using all of the tools that are available for tackling terrorism, including monitoring social media, to end violence against women and children.’
“I think that what we need is for the community to take as seriously threats of domestic, family and sexual violence as they take terrorist threats, act on them as urgently and recognise that they are different,” Ms Cronin said.
It is difficult to comprehend that a rational person who experiences everyday life, including the many moments of disagreement between couples, could reduce couple conflict to terrorism initiated by the man.
How is a couple’s conflict analogical with ideological beheadings, stabbings, shootings, and bombings? Well, it’s not. It is delusional to suggest it.
The second point I want to highlight is the question of family law. One of the major complaints men have in divorce settlements is the outrageous unfairness of Australia’s family law legislation. The settlement is almost always weighted strongly in favour of the woman, sometimes leaving the man with barely anything of what he has worked for. But news.com.au reports:
‘The federal government will on Thursday introduce changes to the family law system that would ensure family and domestic violence can be taken into consideration in property settlements for separating families.’
And Cronin says: “Victims and survivors of family violence can struggle to achieve a fair division of property after a relationship breakdown, and often suffer long-term financial disadvantage.”
Where did they get this ridiculous woman from – a woman so out of touch with reality – a woman who does not hesitate to compare couple conflict with international ideologically motivated terrorism?
Men have to wake up and do something. That something is political action – working through our political system to hunt from office those politicians and political parties who enable this extreme prejudice against men. We know who they are.
The next federal election – arguably the most crucial since Federation – is likely to be at the beginning of 2025. Men should start their political preparations now.
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Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner: Australia’s DV response must be as urgent as terrorism
Courts, police and services on the frontline of Australia’s domestic violence crisis are “causing harm,” the nation’s top expert has warned, in a plea for more resources to protect vulnerable women and children.
Jade Gailberger and Clare Armstrong August 21, 2024
Courts, police and services on the frontline of Australia’s domestic violence crisis are “causing harm,” the nation’s top expert has warned, in a plea for more resources to protect vulnerable women and children.
Calling for the scourge of abuse to be taken as seriously as “terrorism”, Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner Micaela Cronin on Wednesday handed down the first report card into the national response.
The report highlighted an alarming 43 per cent spike in the rate of police recorded DV-related sexual assaults for women between 2014 and 2022.
Meanwhile, the federal government will on Thursday introduce changes to the family law system that would ensure family and domestic violence can be taken into consideration in property settlements for separating families.
It can be exclusively revealed that National Legal Aid is calling on Labor to invest $317m in domestic violence legal services to meet demand and stop women being turned away.
Micaela Cronin says Australia’s response to domestic and family violence must be as urgent as terrorism. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman
“I think that what we need is for the community to take as seriously threats of domestic, family and sexual violence as they take terrorist threats, act on them as urgently and recognise that they are different,” Ms Cronin said.
She said Australia needed to be using all of the tools that are available for tackling terrorism, including monitoring social media, to end violence against women and children.
Labor is introducing family law changes to ensure the best interests of children are a central consideration.
The first annual report into the 10-year national plan states that “serious concerns have been raised that government systems, including the family court and child protection system, are causing harm, and that police too often misidentify women as the primary aggressor – with terrible consequences – when they are the person most in need of protection”.
It calls for increased accountability for people who use violence and reinforces that “frontline and crisis services need to be better and more sustainably resourced.”