AN eighth red bench for the Blackall Range was launched by Councillor Winston Johnston at St George’s Anglican Church in Maleny on Sunday, November 20.
Red benches are an initiative of the Red Rose Foundation, the aim being to raise awareness of the extent of domestic and family violence in our community and start conversations to effect better outcomes. In our area, these have been facilitated by Speak Up Now, Stop Domestic and Family Violence, a collaboration formed in 2019 between the Rotary Club of Maleny, Zonta Club of Blackall Range, Quota International of Maleny and also the Maleny Neighbourhood Centre.
Councillor Johnston, Rv’d Deborah Bird from St George’s Maleny, and Tanya Felstead from the Red Rose Foundation, all spoke about the scourge of domestic violence, and Val France from Speak Up Now, recalled some sobering statistics, including one woman a week and one man a month are killed by a current or former partner in Australia.
Six red benches are planned for churches on the Blackall Range, with this being the fourth.
All are in parishes with female priests, a fact confirmed by Tanya Felstead, as typical for the rest of the country. It seems that men see domestic and family violence as a women’s problem.
While women and children bear the brunt of the violence, it is predominantly men who hold the solution. Come on guys – we need you to model respectful behaviour, to mentor young men to learn better ways of behaving, and support the victims.