“What is it about our culture that makes men think they have a God-given right to bash women in the family home or kill them?”
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Phil Cleary has been asking this question for 30 years, ever since he sat in a court room and watched the man who murdered his sister be turned into a victim.
“She was accused of having caused him to lose control – he confronted her outside the kindergarten she worked and stabbed her to death,” he said.
“I said to myself, ‘There is something wrong with a culture that allows a man like this to go to jail for three years and 11 months’.”
The former premiership coach and politician has spoken about this on the Border before, but when he returns in November, it will be on a whole other level.
There is an underbelly of men in society who are highly resistant to women’s progress ... they have to change
- Phil Cleary
The Step Out Against Violence event that happened for the first time last year, organised by assault survivors and health care workers, is returning in the form of a community march and afternoon in Albury on Saturday, November 24.
But the event is expanding to two days and further engaging the twin cities, with a panel including Mr Cleary, local police, counsellors and more to discuss the issue on the Friday night.
“The march is an act of symbolism and from that we have to have action,” Mr Cleary said.
“There are lots of places men gather where they will hear conversations that are part of the problem.
“Men have to be courageous enough to challenge the people they come across whose ideas give rise to violence, in the family home, in the footy club, in the workplace, and down at the pub.
“There is an underbelly of men in society who are highly resistant to women’s progress and independence and these men need to be shown they have to change.”
Mr Cleary said an emerging resistance to equality, including the “not all men” rhetoric, was a problem, but not an unbeatable one.
“Domestic and family violence is overwhelmingly perpetrated by men, and the men who think otherwise are telling a lie,” he said.
“We’ll only stop this when men accept women must have the same rights as men.”
Further details about Step Out will be publicised in the lead-up.
