“Tara Brown should be alive.”
On last night’s episode of The Project, co-host Carrie Bickmore perfectly articulated the feeling of hopelessness that threatens to overwhelm Australia with every new reported case of domestic violence.
“It just feels like it’s getting worse, it just feels like every second headline I read is the same story… and they’re the ones we’re hearing about,” she told the panel.
Before the discussion, Bickmore had delivered a powerful segment analysing our response to threats of domestic violence in the wake of the murder of 24-year-old Tara Brown and two other cases, which occurred yesterday.
“Last night a woman died from head injuries allegedly inflected by her former partner,” Bickmore said, referring to Brown.
“A week ago she sought help from police but was turned away.
“How many more women have to die before we take these threats seriously?”
Watch the segment and discussion that followed here (post continues after video):
All too often we hear the same statistics;
- one woman killed by a current of former partner each week,
- a third of women over 15 physically assaulted,
- one in four having experienced emotional abuse,
- one in five experiencing sexual violence.
But as Bickmore points out, “it’s only when you put a face to the violence that the horror really sinks in.”
“There are women who are suffering and dying now and we need to do something to help them,” she said.
Read Brown’s story here: ‘Road rage’ did not kill Tara Brown.
The Project team reached out to some of Brown’s friends, one of whom described her “as a great mum, humble, kind- just a real cool girl with a smile on her face all the time.”
Another explained that Brown had been scared in the week preceding her murder, after breaking up with her partner- the former Bandido’s sergeant at arms.
And this is the crux of it: Brown knew she was in danger.
She had told her friends and gone to the police, but they had sent her away, unable to help her.
“In the wake of Tara Brown’s murder, police are asking questions about the appropriateness of their response,” Bickmore said.
“Campaigners are asking questions about the other systems we have in place.
“But those questions should have been answered long ago and Tara Brown should be alive.”
Top Comments
I wish I could personally do something - if anyone knows of how I/we can take some action to improve the horrible situations people are enduring please let me know! To everyone who has posted below I am so sorry for everything you are all going through & I hope by you all being so open and brave that things can change for the better in some way. Good luck & blessings to you xx
My experience with domestic violence and how the police responded was initially good, but the follow up shows just how under-resourced and inappropriate NSW police 'assistance' is. My partner had tried to rape and then strangle me. Luckily I had been able to fight him off until the police came - thank you neighbour who called the police, I don't think I would have lasted much longer. They immediately took me outside, looked at my bruises and asked me what happened. They offered to drive me somewhere but I had a place to stay a short walk away. I just wanted to run, and they let me disappear into the night, which I was glad of at the time. But what shocked me was two uniformed officers coming to MY PLACE OF WORK and informing me about the charges they were going to lay against my partner. I did not want to proceed. I asked if I could talk to a support person experienced with victims about my options. They said no, I could only get help by going into a program. It wasn't what I wanted but I asked them to arrange a call so I could find out more. The call never came. Then came the day of the court case. I had had NO contact from these officers forcing me to proceed with a charge I didn't want to bring (I know, I know - I just wanted it to go away and was pretty sure he wasn't going to try anything again if I never saw him again.) So I turned up to court and had to wait in a room with my ex-partner only a few seats away and no officers or officials in sight. And they wonder why women don't want to bring charges. The whole experience made me feel like a criminal, and again, control was taken out of my hands entirely.