2 weeks Ago By Angela Priestley
Four women have been killed in separate incidents of alleged violence across Australia this week, with the details surrounding the moments before their deaths being nothing short of terrifying. But beyond police sharing the horrific ways these women have died, we’ve hardly heard a word about the crisis. We haven’t heard anything from two leaders of the major parties, who are in the middle of a federal election campaign.
The details emerging regarding the 45-year-old woman believed to have been killed on Thursday night share similarities to the terrorist incidents we’d imagine to result in major law reforms and ongoing inquiries into mitigating such risks in the future. Still unnamed at the time of publishing, she was abducted from her home in Sydney on Thursday. Her body is believed to have been found in a burnt-out vehicle just hours later.
Her two children are in hospital, with police describing “unprecedented” violence in what they believe was a targeted attack involving up to five masked men.Bankstown police called it a “horrendous” crime, but were also quick to issue reassurances. “The level of violence is unheard of, but I want to reassure the community that we strongly believe that this is a targeted incident and that this is not a random kidnapping,” the police commander said during a press conference,” the commander said.
Reassuring? The woman’s eight-year-old son was assaulted with a baseball bat and is now in an induced coma,.Up to five men, all dressed in black with their faces covered, are believed to have forced their way into the home with a firearm before pushing the woman into the backseat of an SUV. Reassuring? Should we be equally reassured by the details surrounding the fact that for three other women who died this week following incidents in their homes, they too were believed to be known to their attackers? This kidnapping in Sydney on Thursday came just two days after Louise Hunt was allegedly murdered in her home by her husband, in Geham, Queensland.
And just three days after a separate incident in which Kim Duncan was killed in her living room after shots were fired at her home. She was 65. And in the same week that Claire Austin died in the hospital, after running through a glass door after fleeing a man, believed to be known to her, in what’s being described as an alleged domestic violence incident.
She was 38 and due in court to get an apprehended violence order within days. Imagine for a moment that these incidents involved women who were not known to their alleged attackers? If the incidents had not been completely random. Imagine if the alleged killers shared an ideology, religion, or race? We would be hearing about issues of ‘national security’ nonstop during these election campaign weeks.
We would have had press conferences by the prime mininster and the leader of the opposition on Friday and again today dedicated to the issue. We would know the details of these women and their familiees. We’d all be picturing their faces.
We would be sharing their stories over and over again. There is no reassurance in the silence surrounding the violence these women experienced. There is no reassurance in the fact that they were known to their attackers.
Instead, four lives are gone, in the space of just one week — a week that happens to coincide with the third week of the federal election campaign. An opportunity, you’d think, for stronger conversations, ideas and announcements regarding how we stop this domestic terrorism. Instead, we’ve barely heard a word, less than a year since Prime Mininster Anthony Albanese declared violence against women was a “national crisis” and just months since Opposition leader Peter Dutton was calling for a Royal Commission.
Up to five masked men forcing a woman into a vehicle after assaulting her and her children. If this isn’t terrorism, then what is? If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, call 000.If you need help and advice call 1800Respect on 1800 737 732, Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.
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