Australian lifestyle website for women, Daily Life, has announced Victorian Rosie Batty as its third annual Woman of the Year, in recognition of her tireless campaign to end the scourge of family violence in Australia.
Daily Life editor Sarah Oakes says: “It is an honour to recognise and thank Rosie Batty for changing the conversation on family violence in Australia and putting it at the top of the national agenda. She is a woman of unimaginable courage and unshakeable resilience.”
The Daily Life Woman of the Year award recognises the women that make Australia a better and fairer place for other women. It is for the leaders and thinkers who set the agenda and inspire us with their words and actions.
“The support for Rosie was overwhelming. Thousands of Australians have recognised her work on behalf of Australia’s most vulnerable women and children who are gripped in the impossible fear of family violence,” Oakes says.
According to White Ribbon, one in every four children is exposed to family violence and one Australian woman will die every week as a result of family violence.
“As we move into the Christmas and New Year period we should be mindful that crime statistics show in the next few weeks we are likely to see a spike in cases of family violence,” Oakes says.
Ms Batty, 52, joins previous Daily Life Women of the Year Julia Gillard and Kate, the cadet at the centre of the ADFA Skype scandal.
Batty was selected from a stellar field of Australian women nominated by Daily Life readers across academia, science, law, politics, sports and the arts.
Other women who were nominated and recognised on the list were Westpac CEO Gail Kelly, disability activist Stella Young, Deputy Labor Leader Tanya Plibersek, Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick and Freya Newman, the whistle-blower who this year controversially leaked details of a scholarship awarded to the Prime Minister’s daughter.
“My heartfelt congratulations go out to all of the nominees for this year’s Women of the Year award for their own individual contributions to their own fields and to Australia more broadly. It was a high quality – if at times controversial – list of outstanding Australian women which reflects on the calibre and engagement of Daily Life’s readers,” Oakes says.
In addition to being named the 2014 Daily Life Woman of the Year, Batty has also been named Victorian Australian of the Year and is nominated for Australian of the Year.
The full list of nominees and citations can be found here.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) is a 24 hour, National Sexual Assault, Family & Domestic Violence Counselling Line for any Australian who has experienced, or is at risk of, family and domestic violence and/or sexual assault.
