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Statement on the March 4 Justice

The Women’s Legal Centre ACT is supporting the March 4 Justice.

For 25 years, the Centre has represented women in the legal system. Our representation has often meant women have got a fairer hearing, a better outcome and stayed safe at home or at work.

But often it hasn’t.

Because the system is the problem. Legal, political and social systems fail women every day. They fail to keep women safe and fail to protect and promote their dignity as human beings. The same systems create and enable male entitlement and shield men from accountability.

We are all impoverished by this system. This is why we are marching alongside the women, men and people who think enough is enough.

This is not a partisan movement. There is no parliament or political party that is free from the behaviour that has driven people out today. Our clients come from homes and workplaces across the political spectrum. No matter which party is in power at a local or national level, the need for our services only ever rises, it never decreases.

We have all been touched by the grief, distress and rage in Canberra and across Australia over these past few weeks. We hope that in the bright autumn sun it will crystallize to a moment of change.

 

15 March 2020