TRANSCRIPT:
"How many people have heard this over the last few months? This is a national crisis."
These stirring words are from a rally held in Ballarat this week.
Organised by advocacy group What Were You Wearing, it was among one of the first anti-domestic violence rallies to be held across the country, because three local women have been killed there this year, allegedly at the hands of men.
Another 15 rallies are planned across the country this weekend, to confront the violence that advocates fear is becoming normalised and widespread.
According to the monitoring group 'Counting Dead Women', 32 women have been killed this year across Australia - allegedly at the hands of men.
Among them, 49 year old Emma Bates, whose body was discovered in the regional victorian town of Cobram.
A man has fronted court in Shepparton on charges of allegedly assaulting Ms Bates before her body was found.
A day earlier, Molly Ticehurst was killed in the New South Wales town of Forbes.
Katherine Berney from the National Women's Safety Alliance says urgent action is required to stop these deaths from happening.
"I think I am a little frustrated when I see the mainline media saying, it has to stop. Well yeah, but it had to stop after the horrific murder of Luke Batty. It had to stop after the 645 women who have been allegedly murdered over the past 10 years. Now, we don't know what that figure is exactly because there is no official counter for it. So, our frontline services who I represent are at max capacity. We are in a crisis, and we need solutions quickly, not in another six months."
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will reportedly be at the rally planned for Canberra.
Brittany Cozic from What Were You Wearing has told Channel Nine the Albanese government should declare a nationwide emergency.
"When they admit it's a national emergency, it actually admits to Australians this is something that is really impacting society and has devastating impact which of course the victims - but also their families and society as a whole, because women are feeling really scared at the moment. And also I feel the nation as a whole is feeling really down."
The New South Wales government has responded this week with an announcement that a review is being held into bail laws, amid concern that the alleged killer of Ms Ticehurst was released on bail after being charged with rape and stalking.
Premier Chris Minns has said that inquiry will examine the possibility of requiring all weekend bail applications to be put before a magistrate, even if that required an audiovisual link to a Sydney courthouse.
"Safety and the security of the alleged victim is critically important and should always be taken into consideration when it comes to bail applications and decisions, whether they're by registrars, by judges, by magistrates in NSW. And they've got every right to ask that question in relation to this decision. I can completely understand their heartache and their anger. And their questions are guiding the government's questions in relation to this. We want to give them answers."
The state's top police officer, Commissioner Karen Webb, has told 2GB she would support measures to take bail decisions in domestic violence cases out of the hands of court registrars.
"I call it one of those silent crimes along with child abuse and sexual abuse and frankly it takes up a lot of police time. Domestic violence takes up about 60 per cent of more of general duties time. It doesn't matter whether you're in Sydney or regional New South Wales, it's a scourge."
In Victoria, police have floated the idea of a register of convicted family violence offenders.
Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Lauren Callaway says having the right to know someone's violent past could be helpful.
"We do arrest 80 offenders a day, so from our perspective, we are working as hard as we can to bring offenders before court. But I also accept there are tensions. It's not an option to lock everyone up forever either, so it's a matter of all parts of the system working together to figure out what is the strongest way we can hold perpetrators to account".
In Western Australia, the state government has announced a further 96 million dollars to support victim-survivors.
But Katherine Burney says that is nowhere near sufficient.
"We ask people to come forward. We want them to get help, we want to find solutions for them. But then, when we get there we have a backed up service system because there are complications between state funding, federal funding, where that money goes, if it is going directly into frontline services. So, there's a myriad of issues that we sort of need to unpick. But at the moment with this being at such a national level and so in the public interest and conversation, more people are going to be self-identifying, and that means more people are going to be coming forward, so we have an obligation to ensure that everyone that wants help can get it."
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says the Albanese government had spent about $2.3 billion since coming to office on measures to address what he described as an "epidemic of male violence".
But Greens Senator David Shoebridge has called for men to take responsibility.
"These rallies I think will be incredibly important to focus the minds of Australians, and focus the minds of decision-makers and politicians. It's about direct support for women, it's about changing some of our legal structures so that perpetrators are held to account, and victims and survivors are not traumatised by the legal system, but fundamentally it's about standing beside women."
