If we want to stop women and children being raped and murdered, we are going to have to change men. This week, last week, this year, the bodies are piling up. The broken souls are piling up.

Subscribe now for unlimited access.

Login or signup to continue reading

Lavanya Chappa, 39, allegedly murdered by her husband. Two children are left motherless. Jana Armstrong, 30, allegedly murdered by the father of her four-month-old baby. Four months old.

A young Yolngu girl, just 17, allegedly murdered by her 34 year old male partner.

Layla Jeffery, 13. Her alleged murderer is 16. They knew each other.

One-hundred-and-thirty-six kids allegedly abused in childcare centres, over 16 years. And it's not just the kids. The parents, the siblings, the overwhelming pain in the families, the guilt.

The nine kids abused by David James. The families who kept hoping that it never really happened to their tiny kids.

Each and every alleged perpetrator in this short list is a man. Or a boy. And one of them owned a childcare centre.

In the 10 years to 2022, nearly three-quarters of a million women experienced sexual assault by a man.

Yet as I write this, I can guarantee that a number of comments on this story will use that time-honoured phrase: "Not all men."

Way too many men. Almost always men.

I asked Matt Tyler how he responded to the "not all men" brigade. Tyler is unusual in this country. He's a bloke exclusively involved in both the emotional work and the research needed to stop violence against women and children. For seven years, he led the Man Box, a project of Jesuit Social Services to try to get to the bottom of how it is that those glorious dumpling baby boys turn into rapists and murderers. Not all those glorious dumpling baby boys.

Should we even be thinking about those men today as we live with our rage and frustration and anger?

Well, yes. Because we need a fix sooner rather than later. We need a fix which will stop the murders and the rapes and the child sexual abuse.

Let's first acknowledge that we have consistent, ongoing, institutional failures in childcare,........

© The Examiner