WOMEN'S rights campaigner Phil Cleary used the closing keynote speech of a violence prevention conference to label inaction on men's violence against women "a national scandal" and called for a Royal Commission.
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Speaking at the end of the two-day Violence Prevention – It’s Everybody’s Business conference at the All Seasons Hotel on Wednesday, Mr Cleary spoke passionately about the "massive violence inflicted upon women" since the 1970s when women began asserting their independence.
Mr Cleary's own sister was killed almost 30 years ago after her former boyfriend attacked and fatally stabbed her.
He said the issue was not with what was known about men's violence towards women, which was well established, but what society now did about it.
"The challenge now is to not just talk but to act. We have to demand of those in positions of power that women will be protected from violent men," he said.
He encouraged audience members to take heart that they were on the "cusp of victory".
"We can win the battle to stop the violent men but we won't win it if we ever pause and don't realise and accept how tough we have to be about this national scandal," he said.
"Believe me, it is a national scandal. It's a national scandal to the degree that it warrants a Royal Commission.
"We don't need a Royal Commission into unions, we need a Royal Commission into why so many women are bashed in homes and so many women are murdered by the man in their life.
"So support me, call for a Royal Commission so we can tell the truth about what's really gone on."
He finished by congratulating everyone "for picking up the cudgels and pressing on".
"We'll press on in the schools, let's press on in the football clubs, let's press on in the supermarket where we talk, let's press on in the family home where our boys gather... Let's keep talking, because we're in a better place."
After the talk, Mr Cleary elaborated that the action he called for should take two forms.
"At one level, we need funding which will allow women to be safe from a violent man," he said.
"That’s number one. Then we have to continue the public debate to outlaw violent attitudes. Outlaw it, make it unacceptable that it’s ever okay to hit a woman, we have to marginalise that attitude.
"So the first step is to protect women from violent men... ensure we have all these strategies addressed, and then maintain the public debate to ensure people don't think it's a woman's fault when a man's violent."
