Domestic violence in the spotlight in NT
"I'll beat my wife when she offends me," a little boy says.
"When I grow up I'm going to end up in hospital because my husband hit me," adds a girl aged about eight.
These aren't the usual aspirations of young children, says a new anti-domestic violence campaign that is seeking to challenge assumptions, attitudes and behaviours that lead to family abuse.
The Northern Territory was the first jurisdiction to partner with national independent organisation Our Watch to tackle appallingly high rates of family violence.
On Friday the NT government announced a three-year, $18 million commitment to programs for prevention, early intervention, victim protection, and accountability and positive change for perpetrators.
"The idea is to stop the violence before it occurs," Our Watch chairwoman Natasha Stott Despoja told AAP.
"The link between gender inequality and violence against women is inextricable."
Ms Stott Despoja said when it comes to domestic violence, indigenous women are "horrifyingly" over-represented and extremely vulnerable.
"Domestic violence doesn't respect your postcode or bank balance, but there are groups where the statistics are higher and the vulnerabilities are greater," she said.
Charlie King chairs the NT's Indigenous Males Advisory Council to shape government policy around getting men on board, and said a recent sweep of 23 Aboriginal communities highlighted envy as a major contributing factor to violence.
"Men were jealous of just about anything you could think about, from sporting success to other families' kids doing better, other people having a better house," Mr King told AAP.
Mr King has targeted sporting clubs across the NT, getting them to adopt a zero-tolerance approach to domestic violence.
"A player as a perpetrator of family violence cannot play for the club or be a member unless they seek counselling," he said.
He highlighted an instance where a photograph of an NT player's beaten partner was circulated amongst the club, who expelled him.
He faced court and served time in jail and this weekend will rejoin the team, Mr King said.
And Mr King is pushing his message interstate: the Parramatta Eels are working on their own domestic violence action plan and he is hopeful that Fremantle, Melbourne and Port Adelaide AFL teams will also get on board.
"Definitely the Territory is leading the way," he said.
AUSTRALIAN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE BY THE NUMBERS
An International Violence against Women Survey found that 20 per cent of indigenous women experienced physical violence in the last 12 months, compared to 7 per cent worldwide.
Three times as many indigenous women as non-indigenous women experienced an incident of sexual violence in the last 12 months.
Nationally, one in three Australian women suffer physical abuse.
One in five are sexually assaulted.
One woman is killed almost weekly by a current or former partner.
One in six women have experienced physical or sexual violence from a current or former partner, in comparison to one in 19 men.
A quarter of women who had experienced violence from their current partner had never told anyone about it.
Intimate partner violence is the leading cause of illness and disability in Australian women aged 15-44.
(SOURCE: www.ourwatch.org.au)
