INQUIRY LAUNCHED INTO MISSING AND MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN AND CHILDREN
Senator Dorinda Cox at the start of Parliament last week. Source: Dorinda Cox.
A parliamentary inquiry will investigate shocking rates of missing and murdered Indigenous women and children in Australia.
The Senate Inquiry was launched by First Nations Greens Senators Dorinda Cox and Lidia Thorpe back in November, however was paused due to the Federal election. The Senators retriggered the inquiry last week.
Senator Cox told Ngaarda Media that one of the goals of the inquiry is to get better data to understand the scale of the problem.
She also said the media don’t adequately report on violence against Aboriginal women and children.
“I think that there’s generally a lot of stereotyping, and a real myth that it’s a normalised part of culture to have such high levels of violence that are committed against our women, particularly in murder cases,” said Senator Cox.
“I think that the media are in fact a very active player in that space.”
Senator Thorpe told a press conference that more attention must be given to the murders of Aboriginal women.
“When a white woman dies, or a white woman is murdered, it’s a front page,” said Senator Thorpe.
“There are rallies, there are documentaries. But when it’s a black woman, you don’t want to know about it.”
The inquiry will report back on July 31, 2023