Australia's Domestic Violence Problem

I've lived in Australia since 2006, and I love it here. Australia is a beautiful, prosperous country full of kind, generous and compassionate people. It is beautiful naturally, and it has a good economy and a working democracy. There is no other place I'd rather be.

Like all places however, it has its problems. The biggest problems with Australia – that keep giving it a bad international reputation – are racism and abusive treatment of women. These problems are, however, fixable.

In both cases, the solution does not require vast outlays of taxpayer money. It is as simple as change of attitude, and that is done for free. As someone who's changed his attitudes on a number of occasions, I say that this is completely doable. It can be uncomfortable, even painful. But the results are worth it.

Not being either a woman or an Australian aborigine, I am not affected by these things one way or another. But for both women and Aborigines these are very real problems. Some attitudes that I've found expressed by Australian men, especially on the Internet, are absolutely shocking. They appear to have assimilated Eminem and Osama Bin Laden and want to act like American gangsters and have the same “rights” that are had by Muslim men.

Many of these people see people who affirm women's rights as “commies,” “feminazis” or “watermelons.” In fact, conservatives, if they are to be true to their stated values, need to be first in line in fighting violence toward women. The conservative virtue of character, the conservative virtue of family values, and the conservative virtue of responsibility all demand that men be better to their wives. And a man who does not practice these virtues has no business calling himself a conservative. It is not solely a liberal, feminist or Communist cause; it is a human cause and one that should be supported by people across the political spectrum.

Australia's problems are much more easily fixable than the problems of Russia or Africa. It would take much less money, and it would take much less time. It is a matter of change of attitude. This requires very little in way of resources, nor does it have to be a solely public endeavor. Any number of men of goodwill can, and should, prevail upon other men in Australia to cool it. They need to tell them that being real men includes self-control and discretion. And that means that they need to learn to keep their fists to themselves.