By Rob Cover
PERTH — From August 1-3, more than 300 academics, social workers and others from Australia and overseas discussed how domestic and family violence could be prevented and how to network resources and information more efficiently.
Organised by the Domestic Violence Council of Western Australia, the conference was opened by Nyoongar representative Maisie Weston. Considerable time was spent discussing family abuse within the Aboriginal community.
Domestic violence — which includes threats, withholding money, spouse imprisonment, destruction of personal property, stalking and physically hurting — is said to be caused by power imbalances in relationships. In 90% of abusive relationships the perpetrator is a heterosexual male. Women violently assault) their partners (without due provocation in 10% of cases. Gay and lesbian abusive relationships are rarely, though increasingly, considered in the statistics.
Noted academic Patricia Easteal appealed for research findings to be used in preventative educational programs, and for the legal code to be changed to ensure that perpetrators of domestic abuse are judged and punished in the same way as other criminals.
Queensland researcher Dawn Llewellyn discussed the serious and often hidden issue of violence within lesbian relationships. She said that there is a lack of resources available to victims/survivors of lesbian-related domestic abuse.
Survivor Ann O'Neil summarised the sentiment of the three days when she called for an education program to be set up in high schools to teach young adolescents to respect themselves. "This will make a huge difference to crime, suicide and domestic violence rates in our country", she said.
The conference decided to set up an internet news group on Australian-related domestic violence issues. There was a call for a national committee to oversee the installation of preventative education projects by federal and state governments.
The need for a change in the way police treat domestic violence cases nationally was also stressed and the conference called for the judicial system to be restructured to enable victims to more easily seek restraining orders.