Australian PM Tony Abbott Teams Up With Rosie Batty To Tackle Domestic Violence

Australia is going to form a national scheme on domestic violence and violence against women. There are plans to have uniform guidelines to prosecute cases of domestic violence across all the Australian states.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has called confronting domestic violence as the most urgent matter for the Council of Australian Governments in 2015. He has called for a uniform national domestic violence order scheme to protect victims who run away from one state to another to save themselves from attackers. Abbott has called for greater cooperation at a national level even though the issue of domestic violence primarily falls under the jurisdiction of the court and the police.

“If you breach domestic violence orders, often there are hardly any consequences,” The Australian quotes Abbott, “We all know that so many families do flee from city to city, from state to state to avoid violence and if they’re fleeing violence, the violence should not be allowed to follow them.”

“Australian of the Year” Rosie Batty and retiring Victoria Police chief commissioner Ken Lay are going to be on a panel which will advise COAG on family violence. Government statistics reveal that one Australian woman dies every week as a result of domestic violence, the BBC reports. Batty lost her son Luke in February 2014 when his father killed him in public after a cricket practising session.

Batty opened up about domestic violence after her son’s death and soon became the voice of the nation. The mother, who was awarded the top Australian Day honour on Jan. 26, managed to explain why several women struggle to protect their children from violent partners helped make family violence a key campaign issue for all political parties in last November's Victoria state election.

Abbott said at a press conference on Wednesday that Batty played a major role in his decision to establish the national scheme. According to the Australian PM, Batty has been an advisor to the government on how women may get help more easily from the authorities. Abbott added that he would want her “Australian of the Year” to be symbolic. He said that Batty wanted to make a difference.