After a devastating weekend which saw the tragic deaths of five women and children as a result of domestic and family violence, the state peak body for specialist domestic and family violence sector organisations in NSW, Domestic Violence NSW has launched the No Excuse campaign highlighting that there are never any valid excuses for domestic and family violence.
Phase one of the No Excuse campaign is a social media campaign highlighting the excuses that are made by perpetrators of domestic violence. For example, “She said she was leaving me and taking my kids”.
You can follow the campaign on Facebook and Twitter and contribute to the discussion using the hash-tags #noexcuse4dfv and #excuseaday
Domestic Violence NSW is also calling on all Australians to sign an open letter petition expressing their outrage at the deaths that occurred over the weekend and calling on our political leaders to recognise domestic and family violence as a national emergency, and to strongly condemn these acts of violence, and to take urgent action.
To sign the petition visit the website: http://chn.ge/1ppIlko
In a press release dated 23 April 2014, CEO of Domestic Violence NSW, Tracy Howe said: “Australia has had a gutful, enough is enough. Too many lives are being lost and there are there is no excuse for violence against women and children, ever.”
“Domestic and family violence is killing women and children in horrific numbers. If Australians were dying with this regularity and in these numbers as a result of terrorism, food poisoning, natural disaster or coward punches on the streets, the nation would be united by outrage and grief.”
“Domestic and family violence is a national outrage. There are no excuses for these murders. It is time for government, non-government and community to acknowledge the horror and to urgently come together to find solutions for this.”
For more information visit the website www.dvnsw.org.au/noexcuse.html