Domestic violence campaigner who said firefighters would beat their wives after returning home is trolled online over her ‘vile’ comments
- Greens Senator Larissa Waters held a press conference on Wednesday
- Domestic violence advocate Sherele Moody spoke with alongside Ms Waters
- Ms Moody made extraordinary claim firefighters’ partners will be beaten
- She took to Facebook to say research shows domestic violence will peak
- The Greens have since distanced themselves from Ms Moody and the claims
A domestic violence campaigner who claimed firefighters would come home and bash their wives is being trolled online for her ‘vile comments’.
Sherele Moody on Wednesday interrupted a Greens press conference to say firefighters are statistically more likely to beat their partners after battling blazes.
The outspoken advocate, who runs the Red Heart Campaign against domestic violence, has shut down her business Facebook page in the wake of her comments, but her personal account has been bombarded with hateful messages.
‘You’re an absolute piece of sh*t,’ one person wrote on her most recent post.
‘You should be stuck in them fires… you should seriously trade places with the koalas.’
A Tuncurry fire crew member fights part of the Hillville bushfire south of Taree, in the Mid North Coast region of NSW on Tuesday
Others described her as a ‘ f**ked up c*nt’ and an ‘utter disgrace’.
‘You are an utter disgrace and do not speak for women let alone for any decent human being in our society,’ a woman who claimed to be a survivor of domestic violence wrote.
Greens Senator Larissa Waters, who was holding the original press conference, has also distanced herself from the comments.
‘After a cataclysmic event like this, domestic violence peaks,’ Ms Moody said on Wednesday afternoon as Senator Waters watched on.
‘Women become extremely unsafe when, generally, the men return home from the fires and subject them to domestic violence.’
Trolls have been commenting on Ms Moody’s social media pages (pictured) in the wake of her statement
Greens Senator Larissa Waters (left) held a press conference on Wednesday where domestic violence advocate Sherele Moody (right) made the allegation
A statement from Senator Waters said the party ‘does not support the statement made today by Sherele Moody that firefighters are responsible for an increase in domestic violence during times of disaster’.
‘Ms Moody is not affiliated with the Greens and does not speak for us,’ the statement read.
‘Today’s press conference with Senator Waters was held to receive a petition regarding the Family Law Inquiry.’
‘Ms Moody chose to make comments regarding matters unrelated to the press conference without our prior knowledge.’
Ms Moody claimed evidence from the aftermath of the deadly Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria in 2009 suggested women ‘experienced an increase in violence from their partners’ after such disasters.
She cited work from Dr Debra Parkinson, who spoke to women following the Black Saturday fires, and called for governments to respond to the ‘heightened’ risk.
But Dr Parkinson told Seven News that although she did find an increase in family violence in fire-affected communities, she did not say it was about firefighters.
When this was brought up to Senator Waters, she said: ‘We note the research that violence increases during times of disasters.’
A domestic violence advocate has claimed that firefighters battling devastating Australian bushfires will return home to beat their partners (pictured: Firefighters battle a spot fire in Hillville)