The deaths of four South Australian women in one week have prompted an outpouring of grief across Australia and calls for a royal commission into family violence.
Hundreds gathered at SA’s parliament house to demand more be done about the “complex and wicked problem” of domestic and family violence.
On Wednesday 15 November, a woman’s body was found inside a home in Felixtow. On 21 November, they arrested a 50-year-old man and charged him with murder. “The accused is known to the victim,” police said.
On Thursday 16 November, police and paramedics tried to resuscitate a 45-year-old woman in Davenport, but she died. A 53-year-old man was arrested and charged with murder. “The woman and the man were known to each other,” police said.
On Sunday, police found a woman, 39, dead at Encounter Bay. A man “who was known to the woman” was arrested and charged with murder, police said.
Jodie Jewell, 55, was murdered at the Modbury North home she shared with husband Kevin Jewell, also 55. Kevin Jewell fled, and police warned he was armed and considered dangerous.
On Thursday, police found the body of Kevin Jewell on the Yorke Peninsula. There were no suspicious circumstances.
SA’s peak body for domestic, family and sexual violence, Embolden, wants a royal commission to fix the system and give victim-survivors a voice.
“Four women in a week losing their lives, allegedly at the hands of a man known to them, is shocking,” the Embolden general manager, Mary Leaker, said.
“It’s a highly complex and wicked problem. One of the things a royal commission will bring is insight into the complexity of this issue both at a whole of government level, a whole of sector level and a whole of community level.”
Katrine Hildyard, minister for women and for the prevention of domestic and family violence, said the deaths were “absolutely tragic” and “absolutely unacceptable” and that the government would consider a royal commission, and what else can be done.
“I’m here to listen to the sector. I have heard their calls for a royal commission. It’s something we would consider,” she said.
“As a government we’re taking significant steps forward – in legislation that we have already passed, and that we are drafting … including criminalising coercive control, that insidious form of domestic violence. We are taking other steps forward but we do need to do more.
“I, together with the premier [Peter Malinauskas] will be seeking to urgently meet with the sector to discuss those ways forward.
“We need men to stop harming women.”
Leaker said Embolden was “asking the government to not just consider it but to commit and implement it immediately”.
“A royal commission is absolutely what we need,” she said.
“A royal commission will give people with lived experience of violence an opportunity to tell their stories. One of the things we’re aware of is a significant proportion of women experiencing violence, who are killed through violence, aren’t in contact with police or services.
“We need to do better at understanding risk, particularly in relation to coercive control.”
Family violence survivors also gathered in Melbourne for the Walk Against Family Violence. Supporters carried lists of the names of women killed by partners and family members. The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, said the march – the beginning of 16 days of activism against gender-based violence – was “an opportunity to spotlight it and bring it to the forefront of public discussion”.
SA’s attorney general, Kyam Maher, said the number of deaths was “alarming”, and that the government was working on a range of laws to tackle domestic violence. It is consulting on coercive control laws, legislating on people who breach intervention orders and further tightening strangulation laws.
“It is a tragedy when anybody loses their life but it’s alarming that it’s happening so frequently across Australia,” he said.
The crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732.
