Rosie Batty

Rosemary Anne "Rosie" Batty is an Australian domestic violence campaigner and the 2015 Australian of the Year. Her role as a campaigner began in 2014 after her 11 year old son Luke Batty was murdered by his father Greg Anderson. As a campaigner, she has spoken publicly about her experiences as a survivor of domestic violence in order to raise public awareness and advocate for changes in police responses, the delivery of support services and government engagement. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said of domestic violence in Australia that it "requires a great advocate and Rosie has been able to do that in a way that I think nobody has done before." Batty is considered to have had a significant influence on national public attitudes, donations and allocations of funding, government initiatives, and police and legal procedures related to domestic violence in Australia.

The morning after Luke's murder, Batty emerged from her home to speak to the media. She told the media, "I want to tell everybody that family violence happens to everybody, no matter how nice your house is, how intelligent you are. It happens to anyone and everyone."

Batty began speaking publicly about her experience. She became an advocate for domestic violence survivors and victims, and sought to address perceived systemic failures in responses to domestic violence in Australia. She has spoken about a lack of communication between services, about public perceptions of domestic violence, about a lack of funding, and about police and legal procedures that she felt disempowered her ability to protect herself and her son.

In 2014, Batty established the Luke Batty Foundation to assist women and children affected by domestic violence.

In April 2014, she responded to a comment from journalist Joe Hildebrand on Ten Network's Studio 10, a TV panel show. In discussing proposed Victorian laws for compulsory reporting of child abuse cases, Hildebrand said that being "scared for your own safety, I’m sorry, it is not an excuse". In response, Batty said that she was shocked at the notion, and had thought that after her son's death, she had hoped that "something would come out of this that would actually show the difficulty women have in abusive relationships."

Batty's story was instrumental in the establishment in 2015 of the Royal Commission into Family Violence in her home state of Victoria, which is due to report its findings in February 2016.

Rosie Batty was appointed 2015 Australian of the Year. In September 2015 she called on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to close Australian immigration detention facilities due to the incidence of rape and sexual assault.