Recognising male violence isn't 'anti-men'

It's anti-patriarchy.

On Saturday afternoon, six people were killed by Joel Cauchi at a shopping centre in Bondi Junction. It is undoubtedly one of the darkest days in our nation’s history. One of the victims was a man, the other five were women. Of the eleven injured and in hospital on Sunday were eight women, two men and one nine-month-old baby.

Cauchi is a 40-year-old man from Queensland. Police believe he lived with schizophrenia. He was shot dead by a lone female police officer who was on duty for an unrelated matter. The Queensland police acting assistant commissioner, Roger Lowe, said Cauchi’s mental health had declined in recent years. Cauchi’s family have released a statement expressing their condolences to the victim’s families. They have also contacted NSW police to officer support to the officer who shot Cauchi, and to check on her welfare.

These are not all, but just some of the central facts of this act of horror. Here are truths that I believe can exist at once:

The majority of Cauchi’s victims were women. This was an act of male violence. The perpetrator suffered from a complex mental illness. Mental illness is not the sole cause of violence. Cauchi’s acts should not shame or stigmatise people with mental health conditions. We can engage in a discussion about male violence, specifically men’s violence against women, while still grieving equally for the men who are victims of Joel Cauchi. To recognise that this was a crime committed predominantly against women is not divisive, or speculative.

We must highlight a lack of mental health support, and can acknowledge the complexity and context of schizophrenia, without solely blaming mental illness and shaming people who experience a mental health condition.

We must highlight the ongoing high rates of women killed in our nation, this isn’t something that ‘just takes time’, we are not acknowledging or acting on the problem with the urgency required. 27 women have been killed in Australia so far this year.

On Saturday, Channel Seven reported the incorrect name of the perpetrator. Several commentators jumped to push xenophobic narratives of extremism and terror, until the perpetrator was revealed as an Australian male. The Daily Mail, Sky News and other mainstream outlets were all too willing to push divisive, racial and religious falsehoods to instill fear and hatred until it was uncovered that the perpetrator was an individual from the demographic that they spend their time protecting. The narrative shifted in real time. They pivoted to publishing every image of the victims they could find, without regard for the consent of their loved ones. I have seen two of the murdered women addressed by the headlines through the recognition of their fathers - their last moments reduced to be titled a ‘daughter’ of a man more prominent. It makes me physically sick.

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It is hard to see humanity in any of this.

Then I saw video footage of a man with a bollard, who undoubtedly saved lives as he fended the perpetrator off on an escalator. I couldn’t stop thinking about Amy Scott, the officer who shot Cauchi and proceeded to begin performing CPR on him immediately afterward. I thought of the strangers who took hold of a nine-month old baby, as her mother fought to protect her after being stabbed. I thought of the first responders who had to attend their local shopping centres to work on mass casualties, a workplace experience that might be expected by the public - but we can never understand the complex trauma that accompanies these moments of complex clinical decision making and care. I watched the interview with a Bondi lifeguard who ran out from a secure shopfront to start helping victims. This was a community of strangers committed to each other in the darkest moment of their lives.

While political point scoring, clickbait headlines and horrendous comments sections are in overdrive, there are many families who will never recover from the horror of Saturday. They have not left my mind, I’m not sure they ever will.

I think of the 30-year-old security guard killed one week into the job, Faraz Tahir, who had fled persecution in Pakistan and arrived in Australia only one year ago under a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees program.

I think of a nine-month old baby who is fighting hard, who will know their mother as the hero who saved her life but lost her own.

I am not sure how we move forward, but I won’t be able to stomach any more thoughts and prayers from Anthony Albanese or Chris Minns. I won’t be able to listen to any more overly sanitised language which skirts the reality of our national failure to improve mental health, and to stop men’s violence.

What disturbs me most is that the recognition of men’s violence is somehow divisive, inflammatory or insensitive. That a plea to men to recognise and act makes me ‘as bad’ as the mainstream media. It is our national reality. It is our national shame. This was an act of male violence, overwhelmingly against women. Why is it still ‘controversial’ to say that?

Calling out male violence is not ‘anti-men’, it’s anti-patriarchy.

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Tomorrow, we will be covering this in more detail as information continues to unfold. We will also be covering the result of the Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial, OJ Simpson’s death, allegations against Sean “Diddy” Combs, Iran’s attack on Israel, MONA’s legal outcome and more.