Edwina Bartholomew: The tragic murder of Audrey Griffin highlights Australia's crisis of violence against women
There is a clip going viral that every Australian should watch.
It's not a funny cat or dog video or another kid with a trick on a skateboard. It's an impassioned plea for our politicians to take gender-based violence seriously.
The clip is not new. It was recorded last year on the ABC show Q&A.
The reason it's going viral now is because another Australian woman has lost their life in a senseless act of violence.
Audrey Griffin was 19 years old.
Her family said she brought 'endless laughter and joy to everyone' and was 'the kindest soul to walk this earth'.
Audrey was last seen on the Entrance Rd in Erina on the NSW Central Coast at 3am on Sunday, March 23.
Unable to get an Uber, she chose to walk home.
Her body was found hours later, face down in Erina Creek, just metres away from one of the Central Coast's busiest roads.
This week, Adrian Torrens was charged with her murder. Police say his DNA was found under Audrey's fingernails.
Sadly, the details of the police case against Torrens barely matter now.
Two days after he was arrested, he took his own life in his cell in Silverwater Prison.
The 53-year-old will never face justice, and Audrey's family has been left with many more questions than answers.
At the same time that pictures of Audrey's memorial at Terrigal Beach started flooding my social media feed this week, the viral video of Vincent Hurley on Q&A began appearing.
Filmed in May 2024, it shows Federal frontbenchers Murray Watt and Bridget McKenzie and NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman sitting stony-faced as Hurley delivers an impassioned plea on behalf of the women of Australia.
'How dare you go into politics, in an environment like this, when one woman is murdered every four days, and all you ... can do is immediately talk about politics? That is just disgraceful,' he said, visibly angry.
'For God's sake, how long do we have to listen to politicians like you … high-horsing about? You're putting politics above these people behind me.'
Hurley was in the audience as an expert in the field.
A lecturer in criminology at Macquarie University, he also spent three decades as a NSW Police officer and detective in Western Sydney, attending up to 20 domestic violence cases a day.
He argued the judicial system was behind the times.
'Social attitudes have changed and the law and the judiciary … don't reflect society,' he said.
'If a male has a history of crimes of violence, of any form of domestic violence, coercion, physical, emotional, they should not have the presumption of bail,' he said.
Yet, here we are again.
Adrian Torrens was placed on a community corrections order in January after pleading guilty to one count each of using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend and contravening a domestic apprehended violence order in October last year.
He was sentenced in 2020 to a prison term after breaching another court-imposed correctional order.
When he was arrested for Audrey Griffen's murder, he was also charged with 11 other unrelated domestic violence charges.
Torrens was a violent man who was allowed to walk free.
If he had been denied that community corrections order and kept behind bars, Audrey would still be alive.
Instead, she is the 22nd woman to die from gender based violence in Australia this year.
Brisbane-based group, Dangerous Females, keeps track of their names and fights to keep the issue in the headlines.
'Men's violence against women shouldn't be a political afterthought,' founder Jessica Hallagan told me.
'Grassroots, underfunded charities are left doing the heavy lifting, fundraising, harm prevention, education, all of it'.
As they pointed out this week in a blunt Instagram post: 'The only thing changing is the death toll.'
The issue has been barely rated a mention during this entire election campaign.
This week, Peter Dutton announced $90 million towards a 10-year national plan to end violence against women and children.
It follows Anthony Albanese and the National Cabinet's $4.7 billion investment to tackle the problem, announced last year.
That's it.
The impact was over in a day, and we quickly returned to our housing crisis and electricity prices.
On Sunday, thousands are expected to attend a rally to protest Audrey's death and stand up for the other women killed by violence this year.
The Gosford rally has been co-organised by What Were You Wearing Australia, who continually stand up when women are brought down.
There will be placards, tears, no doubt, and fiery speeches.
I'm willing to bet a few token politicians will turn up, too.
But who is actually listening?
How many more rallies will there be?
How many women will be killed?
How many more must flee from harm before something serious is done?
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