HOW MANY MORE WOMEN HAVE TO DIE BEFORE AUSTRALIA FINALLY SAYS ENOUGH?

I'm fucking furious.

I'm still trying to process the devastating news of the son who allegedly killed his own mother and seriously harmed his sister. I hadn't even caught my breath before another notification popped up on my phone. Another woman has allegedly been killed. Another family has been torn apart. Another group of children may now have to grow up without their mum.

How the FUCK has this become our normal?

This year alone, Australia has already lost dozens of women and children in incidents involving alleged male violence. Every week it feels like another woman becomes another headline, another statistic, another family left picking up the pieces while the rest of us sit here wondering when enough will finally be enough.

As a woman and a mother, I'm angry. I'm hurt. I'm scared. Every time I see another story like this, I think about my own daughters. I think about the mothers who never got to tuck their children into bed again. I think about the children whose entire worlds have been ripped apart because one violent decision changed everything.

People will call me woke. They'll call me a feminist. They'll tell me I'm overreacting. I honestly don't give a fuck anymore.

I care about women staying alive!

I care about children being safe!

I care about families not having to bury another daughter, another mother, another child!

And before the comments inevitably fill with "What about men's mental health?"yes, men's mental health matters. But today, my heart is with the women and children who never got another tomorrow. We can care about men's mental health while also demanding urgent action to stop violence against women and children. Those conversations are not mutually exclusive.

Then there's our political leaders!!!!!!!!!

I genuinely want to know what is the point of having a government if people don't feel protected? The most basic responsibility of any government is to keep its citizens safe. Yet another woman has allegedly lost her life, and once again it feels like we're left with condolences, media statements and promises while families are left to live with unimaginable grief.

And Pauline Hanson? Watching her push ideas that, in my opinion, would take women backwards while Australian women are literally begging to feel safer is beyond frustrating. Women aren't asking for less. We're asking to stay alive.

I don't pretend to have every answer. I know there isn't one simple solution to ending violence. But I refuse to accept that this is just the way things are. I refuse to become desensitized every time another woman is killed! Every woman who has lost her life this year was somebody's whole world. Every child we've lost mattered. Behind every headline is a family that will never be the same again.

I'm writing this because I'm angry.

I'm writing this because I'm heartbroken.

I'm writing this because I have daughters, and I refuse to stay quiet while women keep becoming statistics.

Australia doesn't need another minute of silence.

Australia needs action.

Because if this isn't a NATIONAL CRISIS... WHAT THE FUCK IS?