"Cultural power: the list"
- Details
- Category: Uncategorised
- Created: Wednesday, 01 October 2014 09:18
- Written by Anne Hyland - Australian Financial Review
One of the biggest news stories of 2014, the killing of Luke Batty, nearly disappeared from public view. Eleven-year-old Luke was murdered by his mentally ill father; horrifically beaten with a cricket bat and stabbed repeatedly during cricket practice. This happened in February in the small town of Tyabb on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.
The story dominated headlines, airwaves and social media for 24 hours. It would have flared out of the news cycle, as yet another tragedy never to be seen again on television or read about in the newspapers, had it not been for what Luke’s mother, Rosie Batty, did next.
In the hours, days, weeks and months that followed Luke’s death, Batty repeatedly fronted the media, speaking with remarkable clarity on how for years she had involved the police, courts, child protection and social workers to help in her struggle to manage the growing violent behaviour of the father of her son. But the system let her down and exposed the poor information sharing about high-risk offenders among agencies dealing with family violence.
Her case, and the reality that Luke’s brutal death was avoidable, was confronting and shaming for all involved. Batty gives The Australian Financial Review Magazine a chilling assessment as to why she was and continues to be heard. “I have a voice now because something so bad happened to me that nobody would want to be in my place. They feel I have a voice, which they feel they have to respect when I choose to speak.”
The Victorian government responded to Batty’s case by committing a further $30 million to tackle family violence. This came on top of an extra $4.5 million allocated in the state budget. The opposition promised a royal commission into domestic violence if it wins the November election.
But for Batty it was more than having a voice. It’s that she chose to use it, speaking with calm and dignity. She was galvanised to act when many mothers in her place would have been paralysed and numb with grief, and her actions are bringing about change. The issue has gone beyond Victoria to become a national debate about the hidden scourge of family violence.
This, according to the 2014 Power panel, was a potent example of cultural power. Louise Adler, a panellist who is chief executive of Melbourne University Publishing, describes Batty as a “genuine leader” and cites the following reasons for putting her on the cultural power list.
Voice of reason in the face of tragedy“Her composure and dignity on the day that her son was murdered by her ex-husband was remarkable; under immense stress she managed the clamouring media,” Adler says. “She refused to succumb to trite accusation. Out of her personal tragedy she became a community leader, both at state and federal level, advocating for more effective strategies against domestic violence.”
Batty is humbled at such praise and surprised she’s made the cultural power list. “My belief is a tragedy gives you an opportunity to make a difference. I’ve always admired people who do that. I was pleased I was able to continue to raise the awareness of family violence as there have been other instances of other children dying pretty soon after Luke, and it reinforced to the community that really things have to change.”
The cultural power list this year is notable for what might be coined the power of one. The remarkable individuals who drove change across Australian society. Another who made the list is Ron Williams, whose influence has touched every public school in the country. A musician and father of six, Williams engaged in a David and Goliath battle when he took on the federal government in the High Court, not once but twice, and won on both occasions, most recently in June. The High Court upheld Williams’s argument that the government acted outside its constitutional powers in funding a controversial national school chaplaincy program.
Williams, from Toowoomba in Queensland, and whose children range in ages from five to 15, says he’d never pursued public advocacy before. But he decided to act when the separation between church and state was blurred. “It was always about the wrongness of the federal government funding such a program in state schools. There were so many other people appalled by it. It just grew and grew and grew. I couldn’t have wished for a bit of a better outcome.”
Bob Carr, a panellist and former NSW premier and federal Labor minister, described the step taken by Williams to object to public policy using the courts as unusual. “It’s a familiar narrative out of America in its highly political court but it’s happened here,” Carr says. “It’s worth acknowledgment on another ground as well: the battle between secular and religious culture in Australia. I thought it was crossing a major divide for the federal government to start funding chaplaincy activities in schools and he has taken it on.” (Source : http://www.afr.com/p/lifestyle/afrmagazine/cultural_power_the_list_080JOXWAcmFi5WuUUXMF7I)
