All men have a role to play
Origin heroes Isaah Yeo and Harry Grant and Maroons legend Johnathan Thurston have thrown their support behind a national campaign aimed at preventing domestic and family violence by educating young people through sport.
Also featuring messages from prominent Australian actors Hugh Jackman and Eric Bana and Gold Logie nominee Hamish Blake, the ‘It’s Just Not On’ campaign is the brainchild of the Chief Justice of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, the Hon Will Alstergren.
“We have been involved with this for a while and the situation with domestic and family violence unfortunately is just getting much worse not better,” said Alstergren, who is leveraging his position of leadership to engage men in the conversation.
“The only way we are going to break the cycle is we have to be able to get male role models to stand up and not call people out, but call them in.
“Sport is a great conduit for this because 80 per cent of males are affected by sport in one way or another and big sports like NRL have got such an enormous reach.
“The NRL has such a massive following and people are dedicated to it so to have men at a game with their sons, and their daughters, and actually have someone they admire up on the big screen and speaking from their heart, has a huge impact.”
The powerful message delivered by Yeo, Grant, Thurston, Bana, musician Vance Joy, actors Travis Fimmel and Hugh Jackman, comedians Mick Molloy and Hamish Blake and Aussie cricket star Usman Khawaja featured on the big screen at Optus Stadium at half-time in Origin Two.
“Just to have that exposure at the ground so all those people from all over Australia get to hear and see our message will be huge,” Alstergren said.
“Kids go home from the game and say to their dad ‘why was that on?’ and hopefully it stimulates a conversation.
“This is the way to stimulate it and we want to show that there’s a real interest in this.”
Two years ago, Alstergren started reaching out to prominent and well-regarded men who young kids may listen to. He sought the help of actors, musicians, TV personalities and sportsmen from the AFL, NRL, rugby, soccer, cricket, swimming, rowing, surfing and other sports.
The next step was to approach football clubs to get their support for the campaign and to provide a platform to broadcast the video.
The Court has also collaborated with Beyond DV in the launch of its App Ask a Mate. The App is aimed at boys between 12-18 years old, and through the use of positive role models, they answer many of the questions young boys want answers to but don’t know who to ask.
This will be expanded to other clubs and other sporting codes this year and the Courts will host a symposium with stakeholder from across the community later in the year.
“The first stage is prevention. We need a national plan to promote prevention and education.
“How do you go about the message and we reckon sport’s the best conduit.
“We need to break the cycle of inter-generational violence, and to achieve that, we need men to be part of the conversation and part of the solution.
“We can’t have a complicated message because men just stop listening but those heartfelt messages from decent men like Harry and Isaah could help save a number of kids’ lives.”
