Canowindra Cwa Advocating For Ongoing Action Around Violence Against Women

In the wake of the horrific reality of a spike in the deaths of Australian women this year at the hands of their intimate partners and increasing community outrage around the issue, 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 will run from 1st-7th September, this year highlight­ing the continuing crisis around genderbased 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.

Cathy Smith of the Canowindra 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.

“We represent 8000 women across NSW and the ACT, and we believe it’s important to keep applying pressure to policy-makers around improved support and protections for victims of gender-based violence,” Cathy said.

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 for those looking for support and assistance.

The association is also keen to involve men in this year’s campaign, to reinforce the message that everyone must contrib­ute to shifting and changing the aspects of our society and culture that lead to these incidents of violence.

“It’s up to all of us to take action against violence when we see it, speak up on the use of violent or oppressive language or comments, and understand the myths and bust them when we hear them. When we all stand together, that’s when we’ll start to see meaningful change,” Cathy said.

This year, the CWA of NSW is partner­ing with Domestic Violence NSW, the peak body for specialist domestic and family violence services in NSW, and The Men’s Table, an Australian non-profit community organisation that provides opportunities for men to meet and talk about issues in their personal lives, with the ethos ‘Healthy Men, Healthy Masculinities’.

“These organisations are doing so much to initiate positive changes in our society that can ultimately lead to fewer incidents of this senseless violence.” Cathy said. “With their support this Awareness Week, we hope to continue the conversation around gender-based violence, acknowledging its many complexities and remaining totally committed to finding the resources and strategies that can start turning these ter­rible statistics around.”