Kiota, m Chelsea Daniels and this is a compilation episode of The Front Page, a daily podcast presented by The New Zealand Herald. From wars and conflicts to extreme weather events, new pandemic threats to cancer coming to Buckingham Palace. We've seen it all over the last twelve months, but twenty twenty four was truly the year of the election. Over sixty countries went to the polls this year, including India, Russia, Mexico, France and the UK, meaning more people voted in one
year than at any other point in human history. But the biggest of them was, of course, in the US. The road to November's election was more intense than most. First, there was an attempted assassination of Donald Trump in July.
Thousands were there to see him speak. They would witness the first assassination attempt of a president in more than forty years. He was immediately surrounded by Secret Service, his ear bloody. By six thirteen pm, he was rushed off the stage.
That was followed by Joe Biden deciding not to run for re election a few weeks later.
Nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy.
That includes Pirstal ambition.
So I've decided the best way forward is to pass the torch for a new generation.
It paved the way for a historic bid for the White House by Kamala Harris, the first Black and South Asian woman to be nominated by a major party.
I accept your nomination to be president in the United States of America.
But in the end, it was Trump who made history. Re elected after four years out of office, it is.
Now clear that we've achieved the most incredible political there.
Look what happened.
As we look back over the year's biggest events, we start in Pennsylvania the day before the election, where Ensid Harold Deputy political editor Thomas Coglan spoke to us about what he'd seen and heard on the ground from voters.
Obviously, you know, talking to people that their views changed depending on who they're leaning towards. It does seem like a lot of Americans have made up their minds already. They're too pretty think camp. The Democrats are worried about the threat to democracy, of course, and the sort of fascistic tendencies of Donald Trump as former chief of staff obviously recently the label and the fascist last month. The other big concern for them is abortion access and women's
rights generally. Donald Trump was responsible for appointing the Supreme Court justices that were crucial to overturning the Rod versus Wade, which allowed many states to implement full or partial abortion vans. Kamala Harris's our ads are saying that about one in three women in America live under some form of abortion van thanks for that Supreme Court decision, and the Democrats are saying that Donald Trump would like to extend that nationwide,
effectively banning an abortion in the entire country. Donald Trump is very keen to say that this is not happening, but of course some of the surrogates would quite like it, or our allies would like it to happen. So that is a massive thing with the Democrats talking about, and it is something that the Republicans and the Trump campaign is very very worried about because overall in the country
more people support abortion and donor support it. And if many people believe that that this is what Trump's intention is, and it is likely to swing or to help drive voters towards towards Harris. Of course, with Donald Trump, it's it's often pretty difficult to know what his intentions are on the Trump side of things, they are very angry about migration in you know, the Democrats thought of them
day and I'm happy with the migration situation. There were I think about eleven million what you call a legal crossings into America under the Biden administration, computed just over two million from the Trump era. So so migration, particularly legal legal migration, as a mess of issue at the moment. Both can't to clam down in it. But Donald Trump is promising a pretty pretty serious style expulsion of many migrants and really tightening up the security situation and the border.
On the Trump side of things as well, that there is a lot of talk about inflation under the Bison years and the use of tariffs ironically, which will be inflationary. The use of tariffs to protect manufacturing jobs.
Trump's re election sparked fears of a global trade war and rising costs after he promised on the campaign trail that he'll imposed tariffs on numerous countries and products coming into the US. To discuss what his election means for New Zealand, we spoke with NZ US Council Executive Director for you Owner Cooper shortly after the election what's our relationship with the United States?
Like, Well, this is the very good thing is that we have an excellent relationship. It's been growing. You know, it's strong in terms of trade, and it's strong right across the board. And New Zealand worked very well with President Trump's first administration, our Foreign Minister Winston Peters. He had strong relationships with his counterparts and he was very
engaged with them. And in fact, I certainly am delighted to see that the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Peters were quick to welcome the result last night and congratulate President Trump on his victory. I think that's good. So, you know, New Zealand's not starting from scratch. We have worked with Trump before and we look forward to working with him again.
Well, the New Zealand US trade relationship topped twenty seven point five billion in twenty twenty three. That's no small feet, hey, And it's getting bigger and bigger every year, isn't it.
Certainly, as it's now our largest export market, it's valuable, it's growing and that's a really good news story. Because New Zealand companies who export to the United States, they are well known for having high quality innovative products that United States consumers want and that US businesses use in their manufacturing. So it's a really good news story. We'd like to see that continue and we look forward to sharing that story with the new administration.
When it comes to tariffs, though, that's the thing that has been a stickler for basically every country.
In the world.
When looking at the results and looking at this election, we actually don't know anything about them really yet, do we No.
You know, there's not room for a lot of nuance in election campaigns, so all we've seen is very high level talk about imposing a universal tariff, but we don't have any details, and I would caution against speculating about the tariff policy until it's more fully formed. Trump won't be sworn in until the twentieth of January, so we're not going to find out the detail until after that. But the policy details do matter, and we'll be looking at it very closely once it's known. You know, the
devil will be in the details. It's clear there will be implications for New Zealand, and it's something that we're really focused on.
Political conflict was rife throughout twenty twenty four. France has seen four prime ministers this year, as President Emmanuel Macron struggles to gain control of an increasingly divided country. In South Korea, President yunsuk yol was impeached this month after temporarily imposing martial law. Meanwhile, in the Middle East, rebels took over Syria as dictator President Bashah al Assad and his family fled, bringing hope that over a decade of
conflict will finally come to an end. And for those in Ukraine and Gaza, hope is all they have right now. The conflicts in both countries have showed no sign of stopping this year, with the world now waiting to see how President elects Trump and his cabinet will handle both. In February, two years after the conflict in Ukraine started, guest host Georgina Campbell spoke with independent journalist Tom March from Kiev about the state of the conflict.
So right now I am back in Kiev, which is of course the capital of Ukraine, and it's pretty far. It's a couple one hundred kilometers away from any frontline. There was obviously a frontline here at the very start of the war. But we're going back to about March twenty twenty two now nearly two years when the Russians tried to make that mad dash for Kiev at the very start of the war and they got beaten back and sort of retreated with their tale between their legs.
I have, however, I've been in the ARKive region in a near a town called Koopyansk, which is on the front line, or very close to the front line, and we were working with Ukrainian soldiers who are actually working with a unit who pilot drones. Now, for people who follow this war closely, they'll know that the two most important types of weapons really are. One is artillery, just the standard artillery that's been used from the first Second
World Wars onwards. And drones, both first person view drones, which are the ones that you just sort of, you know, put a camera on your face and fly and they fly them into enemy tanks and vehicles. And this unit was using was called vampire drones, which are these slightly bigger drones because about thirty thousand bucks, and they strap a bunch of grenades, mortar shells, explosives to them, fly them over the Russian lines and then they drop them all on them. So we spent a night staying with
their and working with them. But I am, as I said, now back in the relative safety.
Of Kiv, and even in Kiev, you have a curfew.
Though, yes, so there has been a curfew.
There's a curfew or in almost every region of Ukraine and there's a curfew. It starts at midnight. Everything you know, shops, bars, restaurants, whatever, are supposed to close by ten pm.
Now.
The unofficial reason for that, more or less is that they still like to be able to do stuff at night, like you know, move vehicles or military equipment around, and they don't really want people on the streets who can kind of you know, see what's going on, you know, just to kind of keep things a bit more safe and secure. Also, you know, if there are explosions throughout the night and stuff, it's more helpful to have people inside to not have to deal with people outside throng
the streets or being drunken, disorderly or whatever. It just they feel it helps sort of keep order more or less.
And you've been in Ukraine a lot over the past two years.
How has the mood or the atmosphere changed in that time?
So I have been here on and off more or less since the very very start. I arrived about one month before the full scale invasion began, and in that time we've sort of we've gone through various sort of shifts in the public mood. So at the very start, of course, in that first week or two, there was just this sort of absolute shock and in some ways sort of despair and anger, like how could something like this happen in twenty twenty two, one of the biggest
land invasions in history. And then there was a shot that they managed to beat them back from Kiev. Then over at least the first year, while you know, everyone was very sort of heart wrench and traumatized by the war, there was this general sense that things were actually going pretty well. The Ukrainians won a series of the sort of a three famous victories chasing them out of Kiev, then another victory where they kicked them out of the Harkiv region, and then a final victory where they retook
the major city of her Son in the south. So about this time last year, there was quite a lot of optimism in the air that the war might be over soon and that Ukraine might be able to retake all of its lost territories.
Including the ones that were lost.
In twenty fourteen, like Crimea and the cities of Donyetsk and Luhansk. Now the mood and now, I would say, is a bit grimmar than it was back this time last year. There was a major Ukrainian counter offensive last year that was very hyped up that Western allies donated a lot of ammunition and tanks and rocket launchers and all that sort of stuff for. But it didn't go very well. It didn't make much progress, it didn't manage to penetrate all the way through the main Russian lines
of defense. And ever since then, not only did the Ukrainians lose a lot of their combat power, but since then the Russians managed to regenerate and they've been on the offensive again in the East. And not only that, there's been the problems with a with Western aid.
European Union aid was.
Held up for a long time when Hungary was vetoing it, and of course rot wing republicans in the US Congress have still are still blocking that sixty billion aid package that Ukraine was really sort of counting on and relying on to survive throughout twenty twenty.
Four In April, I spoke with UNICEF AID worker Tess Ingram about what it's like on the ground in Gaza, including the threats to their lives as they try and help the war's most vulnerable.
I'm in the Gaza Strip in Rafah, and I've traveled all across Gaza in the last two weeks that I've been here. I've been to Carnunis and Gelbalara in the middle area of Gaza, and yesterday i also went to the north of Gaza, and through all of those areas there's destruction and devastation. It's really clear the six months of war and its impact on both the infrastructure and
the people here in Gaza. Everywhere you look, you can see and hear and smell the fighting, and you can see it on people's faces too, that they're just exhausted.
How much contact have you had with locals on the ground and what have they been telling you.
Yeah, every day I talk to people about their experiences here, mostly people who have been displaced to the south to Rufa, but I've also met people in the other pits of Gaza. And look, everybody has a different tragic tale of loss and grief, whether it's being injured, being buried, underneath the rubble, being displaced six times, losing family members, being malnourished, losing
a baby. All of these stories are stories that I hear, and on top of that tragedy, people are really just trying to meet their basic needs of having enough food and water and shelter to survive each day.
Our impression of Northern Gaza is that it's been largely destroyed. Like you said, the just complete destruction. Is that a fair assessment? And how dangerous are is this part of the country now, do you think?
Yeah, it's a fair assessment. I was shocked by what I saw yesterday. It was my first time to North Gaza and I had heard just how destroyed it was, but seeing it for yourself really brings it home. Thinking about where I'm from in Australia and imagining what if this was my home and my community, my local shopping center. Everything is burnt to the ground, and it does make it dangerous because there's explosive remnants of war now in
and under the rubble. So when people return, there's going to have to be a massive effort to try and make sure that people are safe from these explosives, but also then safe just with the essentials that they need to survive because of course food production is decimated. There's no clean water, so that we need to be a massive lift to bring people back to the north of Gaza.
A vehicle waiting to enter Northern Gaza was hit with live ammunition. I'm aware that UNICEF has raised the incident with authorities.
UNICEF humanitarian aid convoy was hit by Israeli gun fire well on its way to Northern Gaza to deliver life saving supplies to children. The convoy was part of a joint mission of UNICEF and the UN Agency for Palacinian Refugees, carrying food, medicine and fuel to feed the sanitation and running water systems in Valia in the north of the Strip.
Chess Am, I right to say that you were in that convoy when that happened, and what was it like.
Yeah, not only was I in that convoy, but I was in the car that was hit with the bullets. So one hit the bonnet of the car and the other two hit the door that I was sitting at, one in the window and one in the door. It was fast and confusing, and we were making sure in that moment that everybody was okay, not just us, but
the civilians outside as well. And it was a shock because we were in a designated holding area where we had instructed to wait, and yet this happened to a clearly marked un vehicle, which shouldn't happen, even though it's a war zone.
Absolutely, I mean, and after this incident, and of course the deadly horrific strike on the World's Central Kitchen just the other week, what's the feeling amongst aid workers at the moment?
Frustration?
I think it's probably the best way to explain it. We know that we're in a dangerous environment. We know that Gaza is one of the most difficult places in the world to do our jobs at the moment, but there are systems in place that are meant to protect us not working at the moment. It's because they're not being respected. We coordinate our missions and we get a safety assurance in response, letting us know, yeah, you can
undertake that mission and it should be safe. And yet even on those coordinated missions, we have instances like this where we're put in harm's way or like the World Central Kitchen colleagues tragically killed. So the systems are broken and they urgently need to be repaired.
Back in February, the deaths of Sydney couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies sent shock waves across Australia that were felt here in New Zealand. The pair went missing on February nineteenth, and police launched a missing person investigation two days later after bloodied clothes and personal items were found in a skip A former celebrity blogger turned police officer, bo Lemaire Condon eventually handed himself into police in relation to the men's deaths. His case is now before the courts,
though he has yet to enter a plea. In early March, we spoke with ABC News reporter Isaac now Routsi, who had been at the scene at Bungonia where Jesse and Luke's bodies were eventually found.
On Monday, the nineteenth of February, jessebd and Luke Davies went missing and neither of them had been heard from, so it was actually two days later on Wednesday, the twenty first, where police launched a missing person's investigation and notified the homicide squad because blooded clothes and personal items were found in a skip bin in Cronola, which is a suburb of Sydney known for its beaches and swimming pool spots. It's located about thirty kilometers from Paddington, where
mister Bed lived. This happened around eleven o'clock in the morning, and a couple of hours later police found a large amount of blood when examining Jesse Bed's home in Paddington. Later that afternoon, investigators searched Luke's home, but he wasn't there. Now, if we fast forward a couple of days to Friday, the twenty third of February, a New South Wales police constable bou Lamar Condon hands himself in at a police station in the morning. A few hours later, he's charged
with two counts of murder. Yeppe is in court that afternoon and does not apply for bail. And then this, you know, for the public opens up a lot of questions. Where are the bodies and what happened between Monday, the nineteenth of February and Friday the twenty third.
What do we know about what happened and what kind of gaps are we looking at here in terms of the timeline of events and what police are actually trying to figure out well.
Police alleged that during the Wednesday, the accused bo Lamark Condon and an acquaintance who police have described as an innocent agent that's really important, attended a Bungoonia property. And Bungo Nei is a small town in the rural New South Wales about two hours south of Sydney, and we'll talk more about that town a little bit later on. But Lamar conton in this acquaintance allegedly bought an angle grinder and a padlock from a hardware store before driving
into the property. Police then allege he cut the padlock with the grinder and went into the property with the van, which he allegedly hired from Sydney Airport. On the Monday that the pair went missing. The acquaintance said that they waited at the entrance at the top of the property
for about half an hour. Police alleged that he placed a new padlock on the property's gate before the pairge drove back to Sydney later that afternoon, and it was around eleven pm that night that police allege Lamar Condon bought waits from a department store and returned to the
rural property during that evening or overnight. Now the next day and the first day before he hands himself in the Mark Condon allegedly leaves the rural area again in the hired white Man returns to Sydney before traveling to another acquaintance's home in Newcastle, which is a town just
over two hours north of Sydney. So's alleged to have gone around quite a bit during this time, and that night detectives say a third person who was of course later identified as bo Lamar Condon may be able to assist in their investigation and they raid a home which they think could be connected to him. Now the next morning, he hands himself into police, but still not known exactly
where the bodies are. But on that Sunday morning, police begin searching a rural property in Bongonia divers scality area
and dance behind the home. But it wasn't actually until four days later after Lamark Conden was charged that police were able to get information about where the bodies were located, and a couple of hours after speaking to him, found human remains in two surf bags along a fence line at a second of Mongoania property, which was located about twenty minutes away from where they were initially looking.
This case led to Bungonia, which is actually a pretty rural part of New South Wales, so far from Sydney. In fact, it's actually closer to Canberra, where you're based. What can you tell us about this area.
Well, Bunganier is a small town in New South Wales. It's about one hundred and eighty five kilometers southwest of Sydney and about one hundred and sixty six kilometers northeast of Camber. It is quite rural. It has a population
of about three hundred and fifty people. I've actually had the opportunity to meet some of the residents under very different circumstances a few years ago, when the people that I met were really friendly, really warm, So you can imagine how much of a shock it would have come to the community for such a long stretch of road to be close off in the area as a crime. Then the road itself where the bodies were found is just like many other Australian roads going into small country towns.
It's got a lot of dense bushland on either side. There are a lot of trees, a lot of shrubs. There are properties scattered along both sides with farm animals. We drove in the evening in the early morning was quite dangerous to drive on that road in the early and late hours. We nearly hit a few kangaroos. This kangaroo scattered all over both sides of the road. And well, police believe that one of the properties in Bangodia was
previously visited by Lamar Condon through a former relationship. So at this stage, that's what we know about that link.
What was the mood like when police and media descended on upon that area. I mean, I understand it's not exactly a heavily populated part of the country.
No, it's nice.
And look when we got there, there was already police in some other media on site because by the time we had got there, we knew why we were going there because there've been bodies found and that's quite eerie in itself. So you know where you're going, right, You know this is a crime scene. You know it's containing two bodies who's police strongly to believe to be the
bodies of jessebad and Lop Davies. You know there's significant public interest in this, and when you're driving down that road, you can't help but have all these thoughts about the circumstances of the alleged crime and how they're alleged to end up there and what were taking place. You can't
really see anything when you get on the site. The crime scene is pourted off a couple of one hundred meters away, but you are having all these thoughts and you left to imagine what's going I'll give you an example about that, right So when we got there, some of the members of Jesse Baird's family were visiting the site and we saw them leave and drive out the area around seven thirty that evening, and you can barely just imagine what they would have been thinking on their
drive on the way to that site while visiting the site. You know, all the circumstances leading up to it would have just been absolutely horrific for them.
In April, Sydney was in for another shock when forty year old Joel Couchi walked into Westfield Bondai junction armed with a knife. His stabbing rampage killed six people and injured a further twelve before he was shot dead by a police officer. Sydney based ABC News reporter Penny Timms joined us at the time to discuss the incident. Those images of people standing up to the attacker, they've been called heroes, right, and we've all seen the images and
video online. Can you tell us have we spoken to any of those people yet?
Yeah.
So, Look, we've heard from some of the people who really did stand up to him. They have explained that some of them didn't actually know what was happening at the time.
There was a man holding.
Up a ballard and I heard him speaking to other media, not to I haven't personally spoken to him, but he had explained how he wasn't even really fully aware of what was happening. He just knew that some bad was going on and was pretty obvious that this guy was the one that were after.
He was carrying a very large knife, and you know.
They just explained that, you know, they sort of said that he just had this blank look in his eyes and that they were just trying to prevent him from being able to venture further into the shopping center. He was sort of at an area where there were a lot of escalators, so it was easy for him to get through the different floors, and so people were trying to prevent him from using the escalators to contain him to where he could be The mother of the nine
month old baby, as she was very severely attacked. I think she knew just how badly she attacked she was, and she one of the last things she did was sort of thrust her baby over to some men who were walking by, saying, please save my baby. And you know, those men were sort of saying that it was just instinct that they obviously just did what they could. Shopkeepers as well, had to just all of a sudden become these really important people who could guide I guess, this
flow situation, this really serious security situation. They all of a sudden turned into not just their regular job of retail workers and frontline hospitality workers, but also just these people who then all of a sudden had to guide thousands and thousands of people who were very stressed. We're hearing more and more stories of the heroic acts from that day, and certainly people who were standing up to that man did prevent him from being able to further
attack people. There was one gentleman, for example, who sort of confronted him and sort of just sort of, I guess, puffed his chest out a bit to try and prevent him from venturing closer to a woman who was trying to protect three children. You know, people were obviously panicked, but there were definitely people who also stood up to him and I think had they not done that, the bloodshed would have even been more immense than it was already.
What do we know about some of those who have lost their lives.
There is the mother of the child. So this is a thirty eight year old woman by the name of Ashley Good. She is well known in some of the football football societies around Australia as well. There was another man for as Tahir. He is a Pakistani national. He was a security guard at the center and from what we understand, it was also his first day of work. We understand that he was formerly a refugee and so that's just another really horrific story that's come to light.
There's a twenty five year old woman by the name of Dawn Singleton. She's the daughter of an extremely well known Australian businessman, John Singleton. She was out shopping for her upcoming wedding. Again, just absolute devastation. It was a forty seven year old woman by the name of Jade Young. She was an architect. She lived in the area and she was a local member of one of the local surf clubs. We're also hearing that there was a fifty five year old woman by the name of the Korea
Dashia who was from Georgia. So I think think that it took a little bit of time just getting in contact with her family potentially overseas. She's also has three children. Where hearing reports now just come through that the sixth victim has been identified. The ABC is still waiting to verify her identity, but yeah, we do understand that she has now been identified it and we're just waiting to confirm that.
Now police have identified Queensland native Joel Coucy as the man responsible for this attack. What do we know so far about his history.
What we know about Joel Councy is that he is from Queensland. He was a bit of an itinerant, I guess, didn't really have much of a fixed address in either of those locations. He originally had grown up just near the capital city in Queensland.
We understand that he had quite.
A few mental health issues, so he had been treated for a mental health condition. We understand when he was in his late teens and he had been then referred to.
A psych high trust.
What's happened in the ensuing years is something I think that will form part of the police investigation. It is understood that about a month ago he moved to Sydney, he made a series of posts from Sydney, you know, just asking if anyone wanted to go surfing. He was trying to learn to surf, that sort of thing. It is not yet apparent that he had any kind of ideology, you know, that he didn't seem to be doing this
for a particular cause. One thing that will be definitely investigated, and there's really starting to come to light now is the sheer number of women who have been attacked, and a lot of focus is now going into whether or not women were purposefully made the target. That is going to be difficult given that he's dead, but whether or
not police are able to piece together anything. I think that there's a lot of calls to investigate whether or not, you know, his online activity would suggest that he was a member of any group, or that he particularly focused on any particularly misogyny type of groups. That's definitely the police their focus today is definitely trying to hone in on that and see what exactly is happening there.
Police are building a profile of mass murderer Joel Couci.
Why in April twenty twenty four would an individual act in such a horrific manner.
He was from Tawoomba in southern Queensland. His family they're issuing a statement. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the victims and those still undergoing treatment. Joel's actions were truly horrific and we are still trying to comprehend what has happened.
But again, this is a very difficult situation when you do also have an aspect of a mental health condition which may not have been treated. We also don't understand yet what that mental health condition is. But essentially there's a lot of difficulty, I guess, in understanding and investigating this sort of thing where it isn't as obvious and there may be other issues at play here.
Sticking to Australia, our closest neighbor, in recent years has seen a disturbing rise in the number of women being killed by an intimate partner. It sparked protests across the country that were picked up by women around the world, including here in New Zealand. In May, we spoke with Australian journalist Ryl Moody, who founded the Australian Femicide Watch and the Red Heart Campaign, about the issues facing women.
To date, I've documented the killing of thirty four women. Obviously, not all of them have died as a result of domestic or intimate partner violence. My current data shows around five women have been killed by a family member, so mainly sons but one daughter. Eleven women have been lost to alleged acts of violence by current or former partners, so we are looking at sixteen domestic violence related deaths of the thirty five killings.
It's probably really.
Important for me to note here, and this is a very common theme regardless of the year and the number of deaths. The next highest context of violence is associate violance, which is people that the women knew but were outside of the familial relationships, so people like neighbors, tenants, colleagues, that kind of relationship. So basically what the data shows is almost all of the women have died at the hands of someone who knew them, and this.
Isn't a recent phenomenon. It seems like there's outrage every so often every few years. You've been reporting on this issue for some time. Now, do you feel something as different this time round?
You know what, We've had that question every time this kind of really zoned in media focus and somewhat zoned in political focus happens. And to be honest, it feels exactly the same as it did the last time there was this focus, and the time before that, and the time before that. Women are really angry about this situation, and they're angry.
About it constantly.
It just looks like we're angrier than normal because obviously there's a lot more focus on the loss of women to gendered violence, especially in the wake of the killing of five women and one man at bond Di Junction, and then there's been a spike in the number of killings in April here. But we also know that within a week or two, this focus will die down and we'll be back to the normal level of indifference from many media outlets and also many politicians.
I find it astonishing every time this comes around, how men are surprised what women and girls are taught when they grow up, So things like use your nails so you get the DNA, don't get in the van, keys in between fingers. That's one, don't walk alone, cave your drink. I could go on and on. Right, So, why do you think that men or people in general find women walking out of the house and feeling unsafe? Why do they find that so confronting.
It's kind of a hard question to answer, but I think what it comes down to is it's a really uncomfortable conversation. It's a really uncomfortable thought to sit with that women are afraid of men. I imagine, Look, I'm not a man, but I imagine as a man, you're hearing these conversations and you're going, but it's not me. I'm not that person. I'm not someone they should be afraid of. So you know, it probably is for man a very hard conversation for them to listen to and
for them to take part in. And I know this from the people who interact with me or try to interact with me almost daily. They basically say, not all men, and they don't realize what they're saying when they say that. Not only do you feel called out, but you feel like that level someone else's bad actions are being put on your shoulders, and you also feel like you know, I'm a good person, and why can't people see this? But I think what men don't get about this conversation
is we're not saying that every man is violent. What we're saying is not all men, but almost always a man, And gendered violence is a man's problem to fix. It's not a woman's problem to fix. Women are picking up the pieces, but we can't change male attitudes, and it's really unfair to actually put that on us. And when I'm talking about male attitudes, I'm not talking about necessarily
about the violent attitudes. I mean, obviously that needs to change, but I'm talking about those little latitudes, the ones where men might feel ownership over women, or they might partake in sexist jokes, or they might, you know, not hold a guy to account when he treats a woman in a bad way, or when they just simply don't sit down and listen to what we're saying and understand it and try to have empathy from our point of.
View, what has been happening in Australia recently, like the rallies across Australia, we've seen some incredible video and footage. Thousands have turned out.
I believe the final accounts for the rallies across Australia, and I believe they are about twenty to thirty of them. My understanding is that about one hundred thousand people turned up, mainly women. Obviously there were a number of men in those crowds. I attended the Melbourne rally where about five thousand people were. It was quite a respectful, very laid back rally.
The women were.
They were loud and vocal, but there was no sort of physical or any other kind of problems in that group. But I did, and I have to really have to point out the premiere of Victoria and a number of her ministers did attend the rally. They had their photos taken with the Melbourne Rally organizers. They were at the front of the protest going down the street, right in front of the cameras. We got to the rally point that had their photos taken there and then they just
went That was it. That was their entire contribution. Most importantly, they didn't stay there to listen to the speakers. And all the speakers were chosen because they, you know, they were either impacted by violence or they're doing work in this sector. Most often as volunteers like myself, so it was really actually quite upsetting to see the politicians just turn up for the cameras and then go and that was their entire contribution for the event.
That's it for this compilation episode of The Front Page. You can read more about the stories featured in this episode and extensive news coverage at enziherld, dot co, dot and z. The Front Pages produced by Ethan Sills and Richard Martin, who is also our sound engineer along with
Paddy Fox. I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to The Front Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts, and tune in tomorrow for another compilation episode taking a look back at some of the year's biggest stories.