The Geelong community is coming together to take part in a national rally to demand action on the growing epidemic of male violence against women.
Community not-for-profit What Were You Wearing invited all members of the community to attend No More: A National Rally Against Violence held in Geelong’s Market Square Mall at 11am on Sunday, July 28.
What Were You Wearing organised a series of rallies around Australia over three days in April this year, calling on politicians to take decisive action on gendered violence.
The events were a huge success, with 1000,000 activating nationwide including more than 5000 people in Geelong.
Despite the clear message to the government, not much has changed over the past few months.
Politicians including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese participated in the April rallies and a national cabinet meeting was held, but the number of women killed by men in 2024 has nearly doubled since then, from 27 to around 50.
For this weekend, rally organisers have narrowed their focus, presenting government and change-makers with two specific demands.
The first is for mandatory trauma-informed training for first responders across Australia, while the second is for funding for grassroots organisations in the domestic, family, and sexual violence sector, including men’s behaviour change programs and women’s refuges.
Rachel Sumich-Antonik, part of the team organising the Geelong rally, said this second round of rallies was about keeping the issue “top of mind” for policymakers.
“We’ve selected those two demands to try to make it more manageable for the power holders to follow through,” Ms Sumich-Antonik said.
The event will begin with a Welcome to Country by Wadawurrung woman Corrina Eccles before hearing from a range of speakers including Julie Saylor-Briggs, a community advocate for First Nations women and children.
Ms Saylor-Briggs said the current model of grassroots services funding wasn’t working.
“A lot of our community organisations, Aboriginal community-controlled orgs and other programs are not funded in a permanent manner,” she said.
“They’re funded according to competitive or non-competitive grant rounds, through proposals or releases of initiatives from government post elections. We need to have consistency and regularity.”
After hearing from the speakers and listening to a song dedicated to women who have lost their lives, the gathering will march around a short circuit in the CBD.
What Were You Wearing volunteer Maddie Fogarty, who was inspired to join the organisation after attending the April rally, encouraged people to come and take part.
“Rallies are a really easy way to get involved; you can just show up and listen or you can choose to take part in the march as well,” she said.
“Last time there were young children, all the way up to elderly people taking part in the march, it’s at quite a slow pace so it’s quite accessible.”
Visit whatwereyouwearingaus.org for more information.
