Australian of the Year Rosie Batty, who lost her son Luke Batty to family violence last year, has listed some early warning signs of abuse in a relationship.

Trigger warning: This post deals with family violence and may be triggering for some readers.

If we can empower women to recognise the signs of an abusive relationship, she may be able to escape harm. Abuse is not just physical – it can take many other damaging forms.

Rosie Batty and her son luke, who was killed by his father in February 2014 (Photo: Twitter/Rosie Batty)

Speaking at the All About Women conference at the Sydney Opera House yesterday, Ms Batty spoke frankly about the need for the legal system to be overhauled to better support victims.

“Why, as women, do we have to work so hard to be believed when we talk about family violence?,” she asked.

“Our organisations who respond and should be responding with the best interests of our victims in mind … let us down because, you see, strangely, a woman can’t be believed,” she said.

Tara Moss chaired Rosie Batty’s session at the All About Women event at the weekend (Photo: Prudence Upton)

“We have to work until we have every policeman, every magistrate, every judge understanding the complexities of family violence.”

Speaking to Full Stop Foundation patron  Tara Moss, who hosted the session,  Ms Batty reiterated that, contrary to the common misconceptions, abuse can take a number of forms including emotional, spiritual, sexual or financial.

Asked by an audience member what warning signs may signal that a relationship is abusive, Ms Batty said: “They confine you. They bring you down. They insult you.”

Rosie Batty spoke at the All About Women event at the weekend. (Photo: Prudence Upton)

Overall, she said, a relationship that makes you feel bad about yourself rather than enjoy the “lightness” associated with a healthy relationship, should set off alarm bells.

She added that “isolation” – the tendency for perpetrators to isolate their partner from support networks — and controlling behaviour were also red flags.

Related content: Mia Freedman talks at the All About Women conference.

Ms Batty and Ms Moss both emphasised that without serious intervention, early signs of abuse would escalate to more life-threatening forms of violence.

“Violence is a continuum,” Ms Batty said. “Violence will always get worse without major intervention.”

Rosie Batty’s advice to women living with violence, as she mentioned on Q&A. (Post continues after video):

It’s important advice that needs to be heeded. So print it out, email it to all the women you know — do whatever you need to do to spread the message that violence often starts subtly and then escalates.

And if it’s a friend you’re worried about, experts in domestic abuse and women’s proitection previously told Mamamia about several simple, important signs that someone you know could be in the throes of an emotionally abusive relationship. The things to look out for include:

Here are Rosie and Tara at the All About Women event at the weekend:

Related content: If your friend starts receiving abusive texts,  show her this.

If this post brings up any issues for you, or if you just feel like you need to speak to someone, please call 

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