By Aaron Cordy
IT IS the bitter reality inflicted upon women in Australia that has for far too long been dismissed, ignored or passed off because the offender was ‘a good bloke.’ But the cold fact is one in four women have experienced some form of domestic abuse in her lifetime.
Domestic violence doesn’t discriminate. It affects women from every race, religion social economic background and age. Some women find help in escaping their abusers before it’s too late, for others it can be a cycle of never-ending torment that can end in death.
The latest findings from the 2021 National Community Attitudes Towards Violence Against Women Survey has shown that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in Australia face a battle not only with their abusers but a legal system riddled with systemic racism.
The top five key findings of the survey show an alarming trend of distrust.
1: Most Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander respondents agreed that violence against women is taken seriously by their community, but many disagreed that it is taken seriously by the police and government.
2: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander respondents reported higher trust in the confidentiality of services than in fair treatment by police and courts, but more than one in four did not expect confidential or fair treatment.
3: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander respondents had higher trust in confidential and fair treatment for women reporting violence than for accused men.
4: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander respondents had lower trust in police responses to violence if they identified as LGBTQ+.
5: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander respondents were more likely to recognise that violence against women is a problem in Australia than in their own local area.
This mistrust in police protection and government assistance when it comes to violence against women is not only in the Indigenous community, but it is where the breakdown is most prevalent. The result of this breakdown of trust is that there has been [as of the time of writing] 73 known deaths due to violence against women in 2024, in Australia.
While violence against women is far too complex to lay the blame solely upon the legal system, the fact that the Australian legal system has no higher responsibility than to keep women in every community safe, that many women, especially Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women don’t believe violence against them is taken seriously by the police and the government is a massive failing on our society.
