True Leaders 2015: Rosie Batty tireless campaigner
Rosie Batty Australian of the Year 2015, family violence campaigner. Nic Walker
by
Patrick Durkin
Australian of the Year Rosie Batty is explaining her motivation for speaking out about domestic violence when she breaks off mid-sentence to chide her yapping dog. "Shut up!" the 53-year-old yells fondly, in her warm English Midlands accent.
"The kids are coming out of school, that's why," she says apologetically about the Jack Russell pup, Buddy, who she bought to help get through the death of her 11-year-old son, Luke, who was was
killed by his estranged father at a cricket ground last year, near Rosie's farm in Tyabb, Victoria.
Batty barely draws a breath before continuing on about her latest campaign, Never Alone, which aims to educate schoolkids about family relationships. But the brief aside provides an important clue as to why Batty has struck such a nerve in the community and among corporations and why politicians, including Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten,
have joined the cause.
As Australians lament a lack of leadership, Batty's style is authentic, real and compassionate. She talks openly from the heart about the pain she has suffered and why the system is wrong, something she hopes Victoria's Royal Commission into Family Violence will help to change. With one woman murdered by her male partner almost every week in Australia, Batty knows there is a lot of work to do. It is not a role she sought out, but she admits it has given her life meaning and she is spurred on by every woman who has left an abusive partner, inspired by her own example.
"Through the worst thing to have happened to me in my life, the path that has opened up to me since Luke's death has really helped me have purpose and meaning and continue a healing journey in a way I can't even imagine what I would be doing now if I wasn't doing this," Batty tells
BOSS from her Tyabb farm.
"Because I am able to speak and that is one of my strengths, I am able to use that. I go to conferences and meet inspiring women and inspiring men and I go down the street and am inspired by normal everyday people telling me what a difference I've made to their life."
She isn't fazed by the likes of
Mark Latham urging her to mourn in private either; in fact, she is big enough to welcome his comments.
"What was encouraging was that the response to Mark Latham's article [in
The Australian Financial Review] was so damning and I think it highlights there is now a shrinking minority of people who think like that," she says. "From my point of view it does give you an opportunity to respond. Other people are more enraged than I am because they see how unfair and ill-informed that type of article is but because it is so wrong it is not really offensive to me."
More alarming, Batty warns, is the suggestion she regularly encounters from people who say that perhaps she could have done more to save Luke's life.
"I think what I find more offensive, as a victim of family violence, is the belief that I could have done something more to protect Luke and the criticism that I allowed him to see [his father] Greg or didn't do something more to save him," she says frankly.
"That is more hurtful because no one could love your own child more than you do. No one loved Luke more than I did, so you know by virtue of that love you would do anything at any given moment. "We do find ourselves [engaging in] victim blaming as a community and society," she warns. "We try to understand it [violence] and try to understand how it could be prevented. Unfortunately we tend to unintentionally place responsibility on the victim. We say, 'It's your responsibility; you need to hide in a refuge or take out an intervention order.'"
The judges said Batty's selection as a True Leader was a "no brainer" because of her courage and the authenticity of her story.
Read more:
http://www.afr.com/brand/boss/true-...less-campaigner-20150723-giivhq#ixzz3kXymYjax
