Women need real solutions to violence

They appreciate the women in their lives - their partners, sisters, daughters, mothers, neighbours. But they don't know how scary it is to be a woman.

At night, few men feel they have to walk with their car keys weaponised in their hand, pretending to be on the phone. They rarely cut their jogs short because they don't feel safe or cross the road to avoid groups of men. They don't promise to text one another - home safe - when catching taxis or public transport home after a night out, or after a date with a stranger, whatever the time.

All things that women do and know that other women do. Don't make eye contact with strangers. Tell someone where you're going. Don't wear that. Make yourself smaller, or bigger.

Unfortunately, most Australian women have multiple stories of harassment by men against them - small, big, indelible.

In recent weeks, after more deaths - statistics tell us a woman dies every 4.4 days as a result of gender-based violence - the Prime Minister described domestic violence as a "national disgrace".

Around the country, thousands protested to draw attention to the issue.

So many recent horrible, tragic deaths - Molly Ticehurst in Forbes in country NSW, Emma Bates in Cobram in Victoria's north and, in Ballarat, Rebecca Young, Samantha Murphy and Hannah McGuire - have led to an increased attention on domestic violence.

In the ACT, one-quarter of charges police laid in 2023 - nearly 3000 - related to family violence and nearly half of assaults reported to police were family violence-related, one of very few crime types that increased in 2023.

However, regional centres have an even bigger issue with domestic violence than urban centres like Canberra and victim-survivors face unique barriers.

Recent political promises for changes and funding lack a focus on the regions, where the problem is the highest but support is the lowest.

Women are being killed in regional Victoria at triple the rate of Melbourne. The domestic violence rate in regional NSW is 1.64 times higher than in Sydney.

Today, ACM - publisher of this newspaper and many more in communities around Australia - is launching HOW MANY MORE, a campaign aiming to expose and stop violence against women in the regions.

ACM is pushing for more funding for preventative and protective programs, for regional-specific solutions to domestic violence and targeted funding for the regions. Now: as Zali Steggall said in Parliament this month, when two men died from king hits, NSW introduced mandatory sentences. For men killing women, the national plan is to take 10 years.

Domestic violence is the leading cause of homelessness in Australia, especially for women.

Women have told ACM about struggling to access sparse services or be believed by police and not knowing how to escape in a small community where anonymity is impossible.

Impactful changes would include more emergency housing and domestic violence support staff, especially frontline workers. In western NSW the waitlist to enter a refuge is around six months. In the Newcastle region, emergency housing is so stretched one service provider has women sleeping in a secure car park three nights a week.

That's not good enough.