High school and university students protested outside New South Wales Parliament on August 15 to demand more be done to stop sexual violence. Students gathered at Hyde Park for speeches, before marching on NSW Parliament.
Australian Femicide Watch said at least 49 women and 19 children have been killed this year.
Rally organiser Mirabel Somers told Green Left she organised the action after a 16-year-old girl died from suspected strangulation during sex. “I booked a room at university and started working on this — instead of studying. Protesting is a good way to force the government to listen. We are worried about our future and this is a major concern for so many people.”
The rally demanded mandatory domestic, sexual and gender-based violence education; full funding for social and frontline services and emergency accommodation; a national campaign against sexism, misogyny, homophobia and transphobia; and a fightback against the far right targeting paid parental and gender-affirmation leave and abortion rights.
Speakers included high school student Ash; Grace Street, President of the University of Sydney (USyd) Student Representative Council; Isaac Nellist, Socialist Alliance candidate for Balmain; Jess Denham, sexual violence survivor and advocate; Inner West Greens Councillor Liz Atkins; Maxine McGrath, from the USyd Women’s Collective; Carolyn Ienna, Wiradjuri woman and artist; Ana, a student from the University of New South Wales; and Abigail Boyd, NSW Greens Member of the Legislative Council .
Ash recounted her experience of sexual harassment, when just 12 years old. She was told “nothing could be done” when she spoke up. “We talk about teaching girls to be careful: don’t walk home alone, don’t get too drunk, share your location, text someone when you get home,” she said. “Why are we teaching girls how to survive violence instead of teaching boys not to commit it?
“I want to be able to live and grow up in a society where I feel safe doing everyday things, but I can’t.”
Ash said creating a safer society isn’t the responsibility of women, but “all of us”. “I refuse to accept a future in which nothing has changed.”
As protesters arrived at NSW Parliament, Boyd and NSW Greens MPs Jenny Leong and Kobi Shetty told the rally that Labor and Coalition MPs could hear the protest from inside.
Boyd said NSW Labor’s refusal to properly fund frontline sexual and domestic violence services shows it does not take the crisis seriously.
“They spend about $128 billion in the budget and prioritise subsidies for gas companies, subsidies for pokies and tax cuts for the rich, instead of funding these vital services.” She said people are sick of words and statements and want “action, funding and actually doing what the evidence has been telling us will turn around this crisis”.
Nellist said the shocking statistics were the “tip of the iceberg of the underlying violence that women are subjected to in a society where profit takes precedence over people’s needs”.
“Labor and the Coalition claim to oppose family and domestic violence but, in government, they refuse to allocate the sorts of resources needed to seriously combat it.” He said One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s claim that domestic violence is a “two-way street” is a lie designed to get headlines and build on misogynistic attitudes that are becoming mainstream.
“Labor does not have the guts to challenge Hanson’s politics head on; it is happy to accommodate to remain in power,” Nellist said. “That is very dangerous.”
Street said the far right and Christian right have been emboldened to try to roll back hard-fought abortion rights, including holding a rally outside NSW Parliament later that day. “We shouldn’t have to be out here campaigning for our rights and basic safety … there is a really diverse group of people here from high schools, universities and the broader community, and we are all united here to fight against gender-based violence.”
