Credit where it’s due here, no one’s looking to Sunrise as any sort of bastion of moral fortitude; the morning show wars in Australia are a blood sport with each major network racing each the reach the bottom of the barrel as fast as they possibly can. But even by those dizzyingly low standards, this is crook as shit.
Sunrise this morning, as part of the on-going national conversation on domestic violence in the wake of the horrific murder of Hannah Clarke and her three children, eschewed any nuanced or respectful conversation on the topic, and instead took the opportunity to wheel out brain-poisoned dunderhead Mark Latham, who utilised this unrestricted air time to have a world-class grizzle about AVOs.
Latham, at his tactful best, immediately pivoted the conversation away from the epidemic of Australian women being harmed and killed at the hands of violent ex-partners, instead choosing to focus on his pet topic: Family Courts, and the apparent persecution of men thereof.
In this instance, Latham’s complaints about Apprehended Violence Orders was simple: There’s too many of them.
Go sit in a Local Court and look at the number of these AVOs handed out,” Latham scoffed, before continuing “I mean, these things are handed out like confetti these days and they’re devalued in the system to the point… the police must look at the number of AVOs in their local community and think ‘how could I possibly police all of these?’”
Not content to rest on the laurels of that brainbusting take, the current NSW One Nation leader offered his considered solution, asserting “You’ve gotta be realistic about this, and target the worst cases and the biggest risk instead of having a system that’s totally devalued through the Local Courts. These AVOs are just everywhere.”
Wonderful stuff. Spectacular choice to put this shit on live national TV in the bare-ass wake of a horrific crime.
Former NSW Liberal Party leader Kerry Chikarovski, providing some opposition to this incessant noise, correctly asserted that “a lot of those AVOs are actually taken out by the police on behalf of the women because they know that the women are, in fact, too terrified to take them out themselves.”
Latham, ever the charmer, ignored those criticisms and instead honed in on Chikarovski’s role on the board of directors for domestic violence support organisation Our Watch. On that, Latham quipped “Close down Our Watch and put the money into areas that you can actually get a result.”
Fucken spectacular move giving this burlap sack full of half-eaten doughnuts time to say whatever whiny crap his brain anus is sharting out this month.
Mark Latham, ladies and gentlemen. Walking proof that there is such a thing as too much red wine and boeuf.
