Forbes Cwa Members Advocate For Ongoing Action Around Violence Against Women

In the wake of the unfathomable spike in the deaths of Australian women this year at the hands of their intimate partners, community outrage around the issue is increasing.

The Country Women’s Association (CWA) of NSW will use its annual Aware­ness Week campaign to highlight the need for ongoing action around reducing rates of gender-based violence across NSW and the ACT.

CWA of NSW Awareness Week runs from September 1 to 7, this year highlighting the continuing crisis around gender-based vio­lence – including domestic and family vio­lence, and also including violence against women by men who are not their intimate partners.

It’s the second time in five years the asso­ciation has focused its attention for Aware­ness Week on violence against women, with domestic and family violence chosen as the theme for the 2020 campaign.

Robyn Miller, President of Forbes Even­ing Branch of the CWA of NSW, said it was clearly an enormous issue that was not go­ing away and needed to be brought to the forefront again during Awareness Week.

“This is an issue Forbes community has experienced firsthand with the death of Molly Ticehurst earlier this year”, Robyn commented. “We need to push for more support for women confronted by gender-based violence and make our communities safe for all”.

During this year’s Awareness Week, the CWA of NSW is calling for: Further changes to bail laws to better protect victims, particu­larly in rural and regional areas; Prioritisa­tion of sustainable funding models for front­line victim support services – and services that target perpetrator risk factors; The ex­pediting of the establishment of a real-time system to record, track, and share informa­tion on perpetrators across systems and jurisdictions; and additional resources for women facing violence in rural and regional communities where isolation and lack of services can make it even harder.