“I long for the day when the murder of 60 women a year by
intimate partners, estranged or current, produces the same sorrow and outrage
from a prime minister and his opposition counterpart as does the killing of a
child — and inspires a condolence motion in Parliament of the kind moved for
the victims in the Martin Place siege. For that day will truly mark the
beginning of the end for the wife killers and bashers.”
PHIL Cleary is a football legend. He played for Coburg in the VFL.
He made his name in the 1970s and 80s. This was a decade when VFL was
notoriously tough. There was no such thing as a match review panel.
Back in the day, the VFL was not about developing AFL players. It was all
about suburban pride and physical confrontations.
Phil played 205 games, he wore a Ned Kelly beard and he was a nuggety
individualist.
Towards the end of his career, he was captain-coach of Coburg. Then as a stand-alone
coach he took Coburg to back-to-back premierships in 1988-89.
When he retired from football he stood for Federal Parliament as an
independent. He won the seat of Wills and his journey continued in Canberra.
Today Cleary is a tireless worker in the campaign to bring an end to
violence against women.
Last week he gained a prominent ally.
The new Australian Prime Minister made headlines when he called for national
action on this issue. Malcolm Turnbull launched a suite of measures to tackle
the epidemic of domestic violence.
OUTRAGE FOLLOWERS BROWNLESS ‘STRIPPER’ JIBE
Sixty victims in less than 12 months is a completely unacceptable statistic.
Imagine the changes that would be made to all our lives if the 60 deaths had
been attributed to terrorist attacks, instead of family and friends.
National campaigns would be launched. Television coverage would be constant.
Neighbours would not hesitate to report suspicious or violent behaviour. We
would be hyper sensitive to protecting each other and we would happily accept
changes to the legal system as necessary preventative measures that were needed
to stop the wanton family violence.
Maybe this is one of the reasons Mr Turnbull has decided to take a stand.
He has not pulled any punches in his assessment of the Australian male
psyche. Mr Turnbull has called for a “cultural shift”.
He was strong in his assertions and suggested that violence against
women should be called out as being “un-Australian”. He’s right.
In the hours after this groundbreaking pronouncement, our country was
reminded of the need for vigilance.
Footy finals are upon us and with this celebration of the game comes the
celebration of the testosterone-fuelled foolishness that can accompany it.
Former Geelong footballer and part-time funny man Bill Brownless was MC at a
function for a junior football club at the Glenferrie Hotel.
He saw two women and commented to his group “here come the strippers”.
He has justified this as a “throw away line”. But that is missing the point.
The women were not part of the joke. They were the subject of the ridicule.
Plenty of people have been online and expressed their dismay that this is
political correctness gone mad.
But it’s hard to believe that Bill would feel the same way if his own
daughters had been the two women on the receiving end of a “throwaway line”
insult, delivered by an ageing footballer in a public bar.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, in the final stages of the
Fremantle v Hawthorn preliminary final a young man was captured on video violently
assaulting a woman in the crowd.
He was immediately set upon by other supporters around him but he was
bemused as to why they objected.
The Prime Minister is right. These kind of actions should be
“un-Australian”. Unfortunately at the moment they are not.
We have a problem with respect. We have a problem with pack mentality.
We need to be honest and admit when we are wrong, we need to put the
spotlight on the violence and spend some money on solving this epidemic.
It can be done. The balance can be achieved. But we need to be alert and
call it out when we see it.
Men like Phil Cleary demonstrate in the way they live their lives that it is
possible to be a hard man on the sporting field and a good man in your
community.
— Ross Mueller is a freelance writer and director
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