This is a reproduction of the text of a change.org petition started by Robert Brockway. Readers are encouraged to review and sign the petition which can be found here. Readers may also wish to leave their thoughts on the original Facebook thread linked below. –Ed
A young woman, Eurydice Dixon, was recently raped and murdered in Victoria, Australia. Following this Mr Daniel Andrews, the Premier of Victoria, stated in a Facebook post that men needed to change their behaviour in order to reduce violence against women.
Mr Andrews should not be calling on men to change their behaviour because it is not intrinsically male behaviour that is the problem. Most men are law abiding citizens who are far more likely to help a woman than ever hurt her, and this is true even for women they do not know.
If Mr Andrews believes that he can get a group of people to collectively choose to change their behaviour then he should simply ask criminals to change their behaviour. Most people would find it self-evident that this will not work.
Increasing numbers of Australian men are running out of patience with being collectively blamed for things they didn’t do and would never do.
Mr Andrews’ call for men to change their behaviour is nothing more than political grandstanding at the expense of men. Further, his statements do nothing to help women in this country.
Victoria Police have a suspect in custody for the rape and murder of Eurydice Dixon. Let justice be done.
If Mr Andrews seeks to reduce the rate of violent crime in Victoria he should take the time to look at research in to the causes of violent crime and establish evidence based policies to reduce violent crime. Casually blaming innocent people for the actions of others will do nothing.
I call on Mr Andrews to retract his claim that men need to change their behaviour and apologise to the men of Australia.
