This morning’s pledge and barbecue at the works depot on River St marks the start of 10 days of international action on domestic violence as part of the White Ribbon movement.

Lindy Moffatt, Nikki Clarke and Paul Sekfy from Lifetime Connect organised the event with the enthusiastic consent of Council.

“While White Ribbon focuses on men and their actions, my hope is that this helps the whole community and creates a safe space for our children to grow up in,” Nikki said.

“We can’t change what’s already happened, but we can change the future for our kids.” 

Paul echoed these sentiments, saying that one of Lifetime Connect’s main aims is to “grow great kids” in the Nambucca Valley.

“Kids are the silent victims in all of this. Our kids aren’t going to be the greatest when they’re impacted by family violence,” he said.

“And these incidents have long tails that stretch well into their adult lives.”

After a barbecue breakfast cooked up by Stuart Holmes of the Nambucca Valley Men’s Shed, Chief Inspector Guy Flaherty gave a rundown of the sobering statistics of domestic violence in the Valley, which he said accounts for 60 per cent of the workload of our local police force.

Since January this year, there have been 1650 callouts for incidents of domestic violence on the Mid North Coast, with 420 of them (around a quarter) coming from the Nambucca Valley alone. 

The Mid North Coast population is calculated at being just over 300,000, with the Nambucca Valley accounting for 20,000 of that – just under seven per cent.

So proportionate to our population size, the Nambucca is radically overrepresented in this crime statistic.

According to Insp Flaherty, a quarter of the 500 domestic violence-related assaults reported this year are also committed here.

Police have issued over 100 Apprehended Domestic Violence Orders (ADVO) to people in the Valley this year, which all have to be processed through our local court system.

There have also been 69 breaches of those ADVOs.

According to Destroy The Joint’s ‘Counting Dead Women’ tally there have now been 63 women killed by male-perpetrated violence this year alone; the vast majority of those murders were committed by intimate partners or close male relatives.

Sadly, one of those deaths occurred in the Nambucca, in a matter that is currently before the courts.

“People have seen these acts of violence. And it’s up to...young men in particular...to stop tolerating it, be good role models to their children, and also think about the situation and not perpetuate it,” Insp Flaherty said.

“I always say to people ‘Don’t be silent. If you see something, put your name to it and make a statement.’ because that’s the only way we’re going to bring about change.”

White Ribbon ambassador and Chief Executive of the MNC Local Health District (LHD) Stewart Dowrick recited a famous saying by Lieutenant General David Morrison: “The standard you walk past is the standard you accept”.

As part of his contribution to raising the current standard, Mr Dowrick and his team have undergone the process of White Ribbon accreditation, making the MNC LHD the only local health district in Australia to have achieved this.

As part of that accreditation it is incumbent upon them to actively advocate awareness (which they do through an anti-domestic violence education program in local schools), and roll out workplace policy which empathises with and supports victims of domestic violence.

As only one of three White Ribbon ambassadors on the Mid North Coast, he extended an invitation to all the workers present to step forward and become an ambassador for change in the region.

He also laid out some devastating statistics.

“One in every four homes in Australia are exposed to some form of domestic violence,” he said.

“You could fill the MCG 17 times – that’s 1.7 million – with women who have been sexually violated who are over the age of 15. So we’re not talking about little numbers guys.

“Domestic violence doesn’t discriminate – it happens everywhere. It’s happening today, it’s happening now as we speak.

“So what I would ask is that you talk to your colleagues, talk to your wives, talk to your friends, talk to your partners. I’m sure there are people here who know perpetrators in this space.”

After the pledge was taken both Insp Flaherty and Mr Dowrick said they had been impressed by the number of guys in attendance who were really listening to the message being given.

“After years of giving speeches I’m pretty good at being able to tell who’s paying attention and who’s tuning out. And there were a lot of blokes there that were listening today, so hopefully they go on and have the discussion with someone else,” Mr Dowrick said.

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