Thread by @LindaDHoward

Dear @MarkMcGowanMP ,
Youve done a great job protecting West Australian lives during pandemic, however there is an epidermic thats killing more ppl than a virus & we need your help....

Sir, why is the specific act of domestic violence not a crime in WA?
(Thread)

https://twitter.com/gemmatognini/status/1335742536229376000

Physical abuse is a crime yes however non physical abuse is not ie:Financial, social, systems, emotional, legal abuse, gaslighting & coercive control.
There is more of a penalty for catching a fish that is too small - than there is destroying the life of another... why?

Your own government is telling the public face types of abuse are wrong and to speak out if they are victims. - but who exactly are victims supposed to speak out to @MarkMcGowanMP? Because without a law criminalising these things @WA_Police can’t do anything...

I know, I tried. 11 times I asked @WA_Police for help - my ex-husband had threatened to drive himself and our children into a truck at 100 km an hour killing them as punishment for asking him to leave - he was under care of psychiatrist & psychologist and on antidepressants....

Bayswater @WA_Police looked me up & down & said “he’s a well spoken well-dressed Engineer, why would he lie?” handed me police order for 24 hrs, handed him our 2 young children along with my car - literally flicked a card at me of helpline now &.. ..walked away

In 2018 - Anthony Harvey forced wife Mara to sign over access to her bank accounts, textbook financial abuse. Bayswater @WA_Police was her local station too - if she had of asked them for help - would of got same response ? .... before being murdered?

watoday.com.au/national/weste…

I drive past this house every day, the flowers have died, the balloons drifted away, People drive past as if nothing had happened..... Mara, daughters 5 yo Charlotte, 2 yo Beatrix & Alice & her mum Beverly once played in the yard, before being slaughtered inside..

I stopped today & put flowers at the front, 5 pink roses in memory of 5 lives taken, 3 generations of one family wiped out.

2 years later and the abuse Mara suffered is still not a criminal offence in Western Australia— why not?

A recent study of domestic violence homicides by Sydney University has shown in 99% of cases - coercive control abuse was occurring before murder.... We now know what the warning sign is, but that warning sign is not a criminal offence.... why? abc.net.au/news/2019-11-1…

The Department of communities is telling women to speak out against non-physical types of abuse, but who do they speak out to Sir? Because it’s not the Department of communities- I tried that too..@simonemcgurk - they blamed me, and made it even worse .. abc.net.au/news/2018-08-1…

Get a #FVRO I hear you thinking?
I tried that too....
The magistrate said sounded like he got angry because I asked for money(after he drained bank acc) told me to go to Centrelink get single parent pension so then he wouldn’t get angry as I wouldn’t be bothering him...

Go to family court?
Lawyers $400 p/h are out of reach for victims suffering financial abuse. When a case is complex because your gov dept allow for perpetrators to use them as weapons to continue abuse , you need a lawyer -but how @MarkMcGowanMP ? abc.net.au/news/2020-08-1…

It just goes around and around.... where exactly do women go to speak out as your gig keeps telling because it’s not Police, Dept communities, magistrate court or family court - Where exactly do we go Sir?

The answer is ..... there is nowhere to go @MarkMcGowanMP

We don’t want;
• shelters to hide from it
• orders to restrain it
• paid leave to deal with it
• breakfast with sympathies for it
•1 800 numbers to talk about it

We want a law to STOP it ....

more women have died of DV in one year then Covid ever in W.A....