Sporting clubs are perfectly placed to change attitudes towards domestic violence and it is their responsibility to do so, ABC sport broadcaster and White Ribbon ambassador Charlie King has said.
King was appearing before a Senate committee inquiry into domestic violence in Darwin on Tuesday, which heard from numerous Northern Territory organisations about the extent of the issue in Indigenous communities.
About 73% of all domestic violence victims in the Northern Territory are Indigenous women, presenting at a rate of 8,780 per 100,000 people. The rate is almost 23 times that of non-Indigenous women.
The inquiry heard services in the territory are overrun and under-resourced, with one Darwin refuge having turned away 211 families in the last six months alone – more than it took in. Numerous witnesses from across the government, police and the services sector pointed to a change in society’s attitude towards domestic violence as a key measure to address it.
King appeared in his capacity as chair of the NT Indigenous Male Advisory Council, and head of the No More campaign which targets family violence in sporting clubs.
“The work we’ve been doing is about changing the attitude, in particular the attitude of men towards family violence,” he told the hearing.
“We don’t work at the coalface, we don’t work with the victims.”
He said sporting clubs had a responsibility to address the issue within their ranks and extended communities. He also said the corporate world had been “silent” on the issue of family violence and needed to take a stronger stance.
“They have the money to do this … That’s for them to do. They attract the money, we shouldn’t have to provide it,” he told the hearing.
He said he was disappointed with Cricket Australia’s response to the death of Luke Batty.
“They should have been on the front foot straight away,” he said. “They should have said ‘he’s a member of our cricket family’. He was killed playing cricket.”
The No More campaign sees sporting teams take to the field linking arms to deliver a message that they don’t tolerate family violence, as well as taking direct action to address violence within its own ranks.
King wants to see the campaign expanded to all Australian sporting codes and clubs, with a particular focus on the youngest age groups.
“You try and change the under-14s but they’ve already formed an attitude about women,” he told Guardian Australia outside the hearing.
“We want to get to the under-nines. You can imagine as a nine-year-old if the senior players are talking to you about that, saying be respectful of women … there’s their view being changed right there.”
Once all the domestic violence action plans for NT-based clubs are completed, the clubs’ performances will be measured and monitored against them.
“It locks the club in. They can do whatever they want to do that works.”
“We think every sporting club in Australia – don’t matter who you are – if you bring people together to play sport, part of your core business is to address the issue of family violence.”
He called for “a million Australians” to sign on to the campaign.
“If we get a million I’ll go to Canberra and meet with whoever the prime minister is and I’ll say ‘prime minister, that’s what Australians have said, don’t ever forget it’.”
King had earlier told the hearing the government also had to be made to take action now, before momentum on the issue was lost, or overtaken by another cause.
“I think government has a role to play in this as well. I would not like this to be an issue that’s popular now but then in a couple of years from now gets lost and buried,” he said.
“This is far too important. This is a reflection of our society in Australia.”
