Royal Commission into Domestic Violence

[watt price tully]

[Culprit]

It's just a waste of taxpayers money as are all royal commissions.

[Wokko]

Because it happens more to women we should ignore the men it happens to? The figures are 1 in 3 victims are men, the injuries sustained are similar and men are dying too. It takes severe lack of empathy to dismiss these victims.

Children are victims of domestic violence too, and it is women who perpetrate that violence more than men. Why are you bringing up that more perpetrators against women are men but ignoring that more perpetrators against children are women?

[stui magpie]

[Tannin]

The difference, Stui, is that a Royal Commission has far greater weight. A Royal Commission can achieve things that an ordinary inquiry cannot. This is particularly the case when the key facts of the matter are largely known, or at least at least known by most experts, but are too politically difficult to act on.
You can have a dozen ordinary inquiries and politicians just ignore them, or more typically adopt a few of the easiest recommendations and drag their feet on the rest for as long as it takes for the papers to forget the story. (Usually about three days, in extreme cases a couple of months.)

But politicians find it vastly harder to ignore a Royal Commission. Consider a few recent examples: the Deaths in Custody RC report had nationwide impact and resulted in real, significant progress. Most of the recommendations were adopted, some in whole, some in part, and although we have perhaps backslid a bit since then, we have nevertheless achieved a great deal of long-lasting good as a result of it.

Or consider the current Church Child Abuse RC: although it hasn't even reported yet, the changes it is bringing about are real and important. No ordinary inquiry can do that.

The second factor to consider is the nature of the Royal Commission process itself. It is public; the evidence given before it is on te public record, it makes the news for weeks on end and cannot be ignored or supressed. Even without a report (though there will be a report) and even without clear government action at the end of it (though there will be action), the process itself creates much greater awareness, opens institutions up to public scrutiny and te fear of public scrutiny, forces changes of mindset, and forces changes of bureaucratic procedures.

Royal commissions, in short, serve a very useful purpose indeed.

[David]

Thanks for answering that, Tannin, I was wondering the same.

Wokko, I think you and WPT are talking past each other�I don't think WPT is saying that we should ignore male victims of DV; in fact, he said the exact opposite.

I do agree with you though that broader society seems to struggle to understand that domestic violence isn't just a male-on-female problem. I went through a Greens policy document on domestic violence prior to the Victorian state election, and I was disappointed by much of the wording in there. We definitely have a long way to go in the way we discuss this topic.

[Tannin]

PS: Abbott's ridiculous "Royal Commission" into the unions achieved nothing, of course, because it was stacked in the first place, because it was universally seen as a sham from the outset, and most of all because there was never anything much there for it to report on in the first place. No-one outside the Liberal Party and the IPA took it seriously. Thus far, Abbot's two sham RCs seem to have done more damage to Abbott's reputation than they have to the weight and significance of royal commissions in general.

[Tannin]

[stui magpie]

You've got you're tongue so far in your cheek, I seriously hope you don't choke.

Violence against women does more physical damage than violence from women against men, the psychological damage is probably leaning toward the male victims but only just.

[watt price tully]

[Tannin]

[Wokko]

[HAL]

We have nothing to fear, but fear itself. --FDR

[stui magpie]

[Wokko]

Tannin's post has a sarcastic tone because that's the tone you would generally be accurate in assessing his posts as. In this case, just go with face value.