Rosie Batty tale inspires Pacific women

Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has described woeful levels of domestic violence as a "regional shame" at a special Pacific women's forum.

(File: Getty)

(File: Getty)

The heartbreaking tale of Rosie Batty's experience with family violence has been offered as inspiration to Pacific island women grappling with the scourge of beatings.

Australia's ambassador for women and girls Natasha Stott Despoja touched on Ms Batty's valiant efforts to help put domestic violence on the national agenda, in a speech to a Pacific women's forum in Fiji on Wednesday.

"When we put names to the statistics it has a very humanising, momentous effect," Ms Stott Despoja told AAP on the phone from Suva.

The Australian of the Year's 11-year-old son Luke was murdered by his father at cricket training in Melbourne in February 2014.

While Australia tries to rein in its own national emergency on domestic violence - the death of one woman on average each week - the plight of their Pacific sisters is much worse.

Two out of three Pacific women have experienced physical and sexual abuse by their partner.

Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama described it as a "regional shame".

His nation had been shocked by the latest incident - the death of Fiji's best and most respected journalist Losana McGowan in a domestic violence dispute.

"The days of sweeping the extent of this crisis under the proverbial mat for cultural reasons or to save face are over," Mr Bainimarama said.

Fiji recently introduced the country's first anti-domestic violence laws and is looking at an education campaign in schools.

Nine Australian female federal MPs, including Anna Burke, Melissa Parke, Louise Markus and Sharman Stone are also attending the Pacific Women's Parliamentary Partnerships Forum in Fiji.

They're taking on mentoring roles for Pacific women politicians.

Women only make up five per cent of parliamentarians in the Pacific compared with the global average of 21.7 per cent.


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2 min read

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Source: AAP


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Rosie Batty tale inspires Pacific women | SBS News