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Women's Health West
Media Release 23 December 2003
National Education Campaign on Family Violence Should Go Ahead
Family violence educators today expressed dismay at the decision of a Federal Parliamentary Committee to not go ahead with a major advertising campaign about violence in relationships.
Victoria's Family Violence Prevention Networkers, who take responsibility for much of the education provided in the community about family violence in Victoria, were extremely concerned about the decision to possibly scrap the campaign which has already had fifteen million dollars spent on it and was to be released this month to coincide with the festive season. The reasons provided for not approving the campaign were, that the violence which was portrayed wasn't 'real' violence and that all the perpetrators of violence were men. (The Australian 16/12/03)
'I am really concerned about what our national leaders understand as acceptable behavior.' said Western Suburbs Family Violence Prevention Networker, Kate Murray. 'Verbal and emotional abuse has a devastating effect on women, particularly the young women to whom these ads are oriented. That program had good reasons for focusing on the less physical aspects of abuse; research shows that it's best to target young people's relationships before the violence really escalates. Portraying men in this campaign as perpetrators is consistent with court statistics; in those incidents that go to court in Victoria, 80 percent of the defendants are men. It's high time that real resources were put into community education about this issue at a national level. If the ignorance of the Parliamentarians in question is anything to go on, our community clearly has a long way to go.'
'Support given by local members for regional awareness of family violence has been terrific', says Kate Pepplinkhouse, the Family Violence Prevention Networker based in Ballarat. 'I would hope to see that support happening at a national level. We expect that a full sitting of Parliament will demonstrate the range of views and thus reflect a better understanding of this issue. We will be calling on Parliament to make sure that this campaign does go ahead.'
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MEDIA CONTACT
For more information or to arrange an interview please contact our Chief Executive Officer Melissa Afentoulis or our Communications Officer on 9689 9588 or via email.