Challenging Misinformation on Domestic Violence: A Response to Senator Hanson's Comments

On Wednesday, senator Pauline Hanson claimed domestic and family violence is “a two-way street”, blamed the cost of living for perpetrators’ actions, and suggested women experiencing abuse should simply “not put up with it”.

These comments are not an aberration. They sit within a broader political project that has, for decades, attempted to build support on the basis of normalising prejudice, particularly against migrants, Muslim communities and communities of colour. That same platform can also risk lending credibility to dangerous myths about domestic and family violence.

Words matter. Particularly when they come from elected representatives. Misinformation about domestic and family violence does real harm because it reinforces myths that keep victim-survivors silent, isolated and unsafe.

Facts matter too.

Violence is gendered. One in four women have experienced violence by an intimate partner since the age of 15, compared with one in 14 men. One instance, committed by anyone, is too many, but when a woman in Australia is killed by someone she trusted every 11 days, there can be no doubt where the true crisis lies.

At the Women’s and Girls’ Emergency Centre, we don’t debate this reality. We live it. Every night, we support about 200 women and children impacted by homelessness, domestic violence and systemic disadvantage.

I also know this reality personally. I am a victim-survivor of domestic and family violence, and I know first-hand that leaving is not as simple as choosing to walk away. Fear, coercion, financial insecurity, concern for children and the hope that things will change can all be powerful forces that keep people trapped.

Hanson’s suggestion that women should simply “not put up with it” reveals a profound misunderstanding of how abuse works.

Domestic violence experts have long identified a common pattern of behaviour used by many perpetrators: tension building, intimidation, escalation, remorse, pursuit, a honeymoon period, and repeat.

After an abusive incident, displays of remorse, love bombing, gifts and promises to change often manipulate victims into believing the violence will never happen again. Then the cycle often repeats.

This is one of the reasons leaving an abusive relationship can be so difficult. For many it’s not an option. Others may attempt to leave multiple times before they can do so. Others stay because they desperately want the violence to stop and believe the promises that it will.

Leaving is even harder when the alternative is homelessness. Domestic and family violence remains the leading cause of homelessness for women in Australia. When the choice is between a dangerous home and a dangerous world, it is no choice at all.

Hanson also sought to link her vile comments with her politically convenient raison d’etre – the cost of living. On this, once again, she is wrong. Responsibility for violence always lies with the perpetrator. There is no excuse for it, no societal or economic conditions that provide a cover of acceptability to abuse.

Victim-survivors and women trapped in abusive relationships may hear Hanson’s comments and believe they are alone. That they are not seen. Perhaps even that they are at fault.

For people from communities that have long been the target of Hanson’s rhetoric, these comments will not be experienced in isolation. They reinforce a pattern of public discourse that diminishes people’s experiences, legitimises prejudice and undermines safety.

Let me be quite clear. Women are not at fault. They cannot always just leave. There is no excuse for the violence they experience. And there is a support network out there ready to support them and who work every day to prevent the very violence they are forced to suffer.

Hanson may never apologise for her comments. But the rest of us have a responsibility to challenge misinformation whenever we hear it, to stand with victim-survivors and to ensure the national conversation about domestic and family violence is grounded in evidence, compassion and the lived reality of those experiencing it.

Because the stakes are simply too high for anything less.