When Luke Batty was murdered last year by his father, Greg Anderson, one of the many questions Rosie Batty had to hear and endure was: “Why didn’t you do more to protect Luke?” Incredulous as this sounds it’s not an uncommon belief, it’s a societal knee-jerk reaction that says much more than just “why doesn’t she leave/say something/report him/do something?” As if the onus of responsibility lies with the victim instead of the perpetrator.
As with this case, and many other current events involving booing on the football field, for example, the questions we should be asking are: “Why doesn’t he stop hitting? Why doesn’t the government tighten their AVO regulations? Why boo? Why behave this way?” Put the onus back on the people committing these crimes and focus on their behaviour instead.
Part of me wonders why we don’t focus more on the perpetrators’ behaviour when it comes to family violence and what we can do about it, and the conclusion I come to is it’s because we are afraid of what we will find if we open Pandora’s box. We would find an over-arching and archaic attitude towards women, a court system that disbelieves the victims, an AVO process that’s frankly laughable (and the perpetrators know it) and a police force who spend the majority of their day responding to domestic violence and disturbances and yet are bogged down by procedure and red tape.
In the case of Tara Costigan and Rosie Batty I don’t want to have to answer the question, “Why didn’t they do more?” Mostly because I don’t want to feed the idea that it’s a fair question to ask. But I will answer it purely to educate. THEY DID DO MORE. Tara’s alleged murderer violated his AVO in order to attack her, and it wasn’t the first time he had breached an AVO. For Rosie, it’s more complicated and more horrifying (see below*).
The bottom line is that we as a society need to change the way we view victims and view perpetrators. We need to start asking more from our courts and our lawmakers regarding AVOs and demand zero tolerance of breaching them as a deterrent. If we don’t, the numbers will rise and we will lose many more mums, sisters, grandmothers, cousins, aunts and daughters.
*The last six weeks before Luke was murdered:
January 5, 2013: Magistrate releases Anderson on bail despite police opposition.
February 11, 2013: Anderson banned from being near Rosie’s home or work.
April 22 and 23, 2013: Rosie attends court for police prosecution against Anderson. He doesn’t show.
April 24, 2013: Magistrate orders no contact between Anderson and Luke and Rosie. Anderson turns up at football training that night.
May 7, 2013: Police tell Rosie to call 000 when she next sees Anderson.
May 8, 2013: Rosie calls police after seeing Anderson but they can’t act because warrants haven’t arrived.
May 9, 2013: Anderson turns up at Luke’s school in breach of court ban.
May 22, 2013: Anderson arrested at Tyabb Oval.
June 2013: Anderson jailed for two weeks then bailed.
July 22, 2013: Anderson gets to see Luke on limited terms.
September 9, 2013: Rosie has Anderson banned from attending Luke’s scouts. She feels it’s not safe.
February 5, 2014: Rosie says she gives police Anderson’s address so they can arrest him. They don’t.
February 12, 2014: Anderson kills Luke at Tyabb Oval.
Women dead from domestic violence in August: 2
Year to date (until August): 55
