With a list of five demands, thousands take to Sydney streets over gendered violence

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is being urged to declare a national emergency against gendered violence, with advocacy groups “begging” governments to do more to stop women being murdered.

Thousands marched in Sydney, Adelaide and Hobart on Saturday following a recent spate of horrific killings across the country, with sister rallies in Melbourne, Perth, Canberra, Brisbane and regional cities planned for Sunday.

Thousands rally in Sydney on Saturday.

Sydney attendees walked from Belmore Park to Hyde Park, holding signs reading, “I’d feel safer alone with a bear”, “Murder on the dance floor, on a run, in a park, at the shops, in our homes”, and “Men are like mushrooms: dangerous ’till proven otherwise”.

Rally organiser, victim-survivor and What Were You Wearing founder Sarah Williams said she was “begging” the government to act.

“By people turning up, it’s putting pressure on [the government]. They’re going to have to do something after these rallies,” she said.

NSW Premier Chris Minns, who is considering calls for a state-based royal commission into violence against women, attended the rally for nearly two hours, along with Housing, Homelessness, Mental Health and Youth Minister Rose Jackson, Regional Transport and Roads Minister Jenny Aitchison and member for Parramatta Donna Davis.

Over a thousand people attended National Rally Against Violence on Women in Sydney

Organisers laid 32 flowers in Hyde Park, representing each woman killed in Australia so far this year. Advocacy groups say 27 of the women were killed in alleged domestic or intimate partner violence events, with the other five flowers dedicated to the women killed in the Westfield Bondi Junction attack.

The death of 30-year-old mother of four Erica Hay in Western Australia was announced hours after regional rallies on Friday night, with a man known to her assisting police with inquiries. The woman’s death is being treated as suspicious, but authorities have not determined how she died. Elsewhere, Emma Bates in regional Victoria and Molly Ticehurst in regional NSW were allegedly murdered this week by men known to them.

Ticehurst’s former partner, Daniel Billings, had earlier been released on bail despite facing charges of raping and stalking her.

Rally participants issued five demands on Saturday: the declaration of a national emergency; mandatory victim blaming prevention training for police, media and first responders; alternative reporting options for violence victims, including specialist courts; the media to wait 48 hours before identifying violence victims; and for the government to give better, more sustainable funding for organisations with five-year minimum commitments.

Event founder Sarah Williams begged for immediate government action.

Williams said the demands were developed in consultation with women’s advocacy organisations, but also from her own experience attempting to report alleged domestic violence in Newcastle in 2021.

“We need something similar to the Responsible Serving of Alcohol training before you can become one of those professionals [taking sexual violence disclosures],” she said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will march in a rally in Canberra on Sunday.

In a statement posted on social media platform X, he said: “Violence against women is an epidemic. We must do better. Tomorrow I will walk with women across Australia to say enough is enough.”

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and former Sydney lord mayor Lucy Turnbull joined the Sydney march on Saturday, calling for a monitoring system for men who had been convicted of violence against women to be publicly accessible.

NSW Premier Chris Minns joins the march on Saturday.

“Men who do these things are often repeat offenders … women going on a date should be able to look up whether a man has an apprehended violence order against him,” the former prime minister said.

Lucy Turnbull called for a change in the criminal justice system. “We are sickened by the incidents of violence. It’s been going on for far too long,” she said.

Independent federal MP Sophie Scamps was nearby holding up a sign reading, “You shut down Sydney for a coward’s punch. What will you do for women?”

Minns on Friday said he would hold a special meeting of cabinet next week to be addressed by Marcia Neave, the commissioner of the 2015 Victorian royal commission into family and domestic violence, Women’s Safety Commissioner Hannah Tonkin, and former Australian of the Year Rossie Batty.

Batty told the Herald on Friday that NSW should order a royal commission into the scourge of violence against women in the state.

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