Deb Knight: 'What will it take to keep Australian women safe?'
OPINION -- Yesterday came the awful news of the death of 27-year-old Kelly Wilkinson. Her burnt body was found in her own backyard at Arundel on the Gold Coast; her three children, all under nine, were at home at the time. Just beyond belief.
Her former partner, 34-year-old Bryan Johnstone, has been charged with murder and breaching a domestic violence order. He was found with serious burns two blocks away.
RELATED: The law that will prevent more deaths like Hannah Clarke and her children
Kelly Wilkinson was allegedly murdered by her estranged partner. GoFundMe
It raises the question: what is going so wrong with domestic violence in this country? What's the point of AVOs and domestic violence orders? They're not worth the paper they're written on.
These women, who reach out and plead for help — why aren't they safe?
Women are still being murdered, one a week, by a current or former partner. Domestic violence is a crisis in this country, and it keeps happening.
Too many Australian women, like Hannah Clarke, are losing their lives. Small Steps 4 Hannah
Kelly Wilkinson's death. Doreen Langham murdered in a house fire by her violent ex-partner in Browns Plains in February. Hannah Clarke murdered in Brisbane last February, doused in petrol by her former partner and set alight in the car with her three children.
All of them killed in the most horrific ways.
Hannah's father Lloyd Clarke told Neil Breen on 4BC that too many families are being ripped apart. What do we have to do to stop these lives being lost?
LISTEN: Deb Knight discusses Kelly Wilkinson's alleged murder on 2GB. (Post continues.)
It is a crisis. I genuinely don't know what the answer is. There's no single solution, of course, and police are just as frustrated. AVOs and domestic violence orders don't work; most of the women killed have AVOs against their former partners. They don't keep them safe.
What needs to be done? Something has to change. Too many lives are being destroyed and families ripped apart.
Imagine those three little children of Kelly Wilkinson. They were at home when this horrific attack happened. They've lost their mum, allegedly at the hands of the man who was meant to love and protect her — her former partner. How will they ever recover?
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