Geelong steps out again for March4Justice

THE second edition of March4Justice has taken to the streets, with dozens at a Geelong event adding to the thousands of people who rallied across Australia on Sunday in support of gender equality.

Starting outside Geelong Trades Hall, the March4Justice2 crowd travelled down Yarra Street and Little Malop Street for speeches in the mall, including an Acknowledgement of Country from Auntie Lyn McInnes, Geelong Women Unionists Network co-convener Adele Walsh, Corangamite Labor federal member Libby Coker and Australian Services Union delegate and social and community services worker Angela Carr.

The march then turned left then left onto Moorabool Street and stopped briefly outside the office of Victorian Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson.

Torquay also hosted a March4Justice2 event on the beach at Cosy Corner on Sunday.

First organised by Canberra-based academic Janine Hendry in 2021, the March4Justice movement grew nationwide throughout the course of last year and culminated on March 15 with more than 110,000 people marching at more than 200 events across Australia, including in Geelong and Torquay.

According to their website, March4Justice has four key demands in the short term:

• All women to be safe in Australia, with First Nations women a priority, and ending racial violence to First Nations women by the state
• Being safe at work and at home, by fully implement the 55 recommendations in the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Respect@Work report of the National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces 2020, as well as increase funding for domestic and family violence prevention and support services
• Real action to end gendered violence and promote gender equality across Australia, by starting independent investigations into public entities and public office holders for all cases of gendered violence, with referrals to appropriate authorities and full public accountability for findings, and
• Criminal justice reform with a consistent national approach to domestic and family violence protection orders and offences, and sexual assault laws and sentencing, and a national review, led by all attorneys-general, to develop new approaches to sexual assault trials and criminal procedure and systems that are survivor-centred and address bias in the law.