Tomorrow, we will have a new Australian of the Year.

There will be chatter about the worthiness of the choice, there will be fanfare and handshakes with the Prime Minister and gala dinners, and while that hums away in the background, Rosie Batty will quietly finish up her stint as Australia’s most reluctant figurehead.

Rosie is the first to admit that she has a”celebrity status that no-one wants”. She is our Australian Of The Year because of what happened to her son, Luke, murdered by his father, but she is still in our consciousness because of what she has chosen to do with that unimaginable position.

She has spent a year talking about the most difficult thing it is possible to talk about — losing a child in horrific circumstances — because she wanted to give family violence victims a desperately needed voice, and a face.

She has endured the feedback — some well-meaning, some far less so — of an armchair audience so that they might understand the crisis we are facing.

And this week, that obligation will end, and the next chapter will begin to unfurl.

Rosie with Luke.

It’s time to thank Rosie Batty for insisting that a light was shone on an issue that had been pushed aside for too long.

It’s time to say thank you, Rosie, for your strength and courage when the world had no right to expect either from you.

But most of all, thank you, Rosie Batty, for your honesty.

Mia Freedman admitted that she was nervous about meeting Rosie Batty when she came into the Mamamia offices for an interview. They ended up talking about everything from how you prepare yourself  to talk about the worst moment of your life to what she can laugh about now.

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Rosie tells Mia about her critics:

On the outcome that she and other family violence campaigners want:

On grief, almost two years on:

What would you like to say to Rosie Batty?