TOMORROW, Saturday, 10th May at 12pm, the aunt of 18-year-old murder victim, Emerald Wardle, will be co-hosting the Community Rally Against Violence in Newcastle, to honour her niece and all women and children who fall victims of heinous crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo far this year, 24 women in Australia have been murdered, and by the time we rally, that number could sadly be higher. This is a heartbreaking reality we can no longer ignore,\u201d said Ms Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOn Saturday we\u2019ll be walking and calling for critical change to the justice system that failed Emerald, our family and many other victims of violent, heinous crimes against women and children,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ms Smith who played a critical role in initiating amendments to the Mental Health and Cognitive Impairment Forensic Provisions Act 2020 and the Mental Health Act 2007 that strengthened oversight and governance in forensic mental health matters, was in the gallery to witness the bill being presented by The Hon. Rose Jackson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhile we\u2019re deeply grateful for the recent changes to legislation that the Member for Orange, Philip Donato MP advocated for and the Minister for Mental Health, The Hon. Rose Jackson implemented, more needs to be done to protect the community when forensic patients are released, as the changes don\u2019t go far enough,\u201d Ms Smith said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWith the support of Advocacy Australia, we and other victims of family members who have been brutally killed will continue to fight to protect the community from these killers even if the NSW Government, the Opposition and the Greens object to these important changes that will save lives,\u201d said Ms Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Emerald\u2019s young life was brutally taken by her boyfriend in 2020, Ms Smith says Emerald and her family were failed by a system that treated her cherished niece as just another statistic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In April 2024, in the Court of Criminal Appeal, Emerald\u2019s killer successfully overturned his murder conviction and a maximum 20-year sentence to be \u2018act proven but not criminally responsible\u2019, with oversight of the killer transferred to the Mental Health Review Tribunal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Mental Health Review Tribunal with its unprecedented, autonomous powers, makes decisions about the treatment and supervision of forensic patients and conducts reviews that can grant known killers leave from a facility that Ms Smith says not only fails to meet community expectations but poses serious risks to the wider community especially women and children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEmerald lost her young life at the hands of her boyfriend, a person she trusted, and then to learn that her killer was granted day release by the Tribunal and was using dating apps, was devastating,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis rally is extremely important to me as not once in the last four years has Emerald, our family or the community be considered in the decisions that have been made around this case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen will victims of crime and their families be considered when these decisions are being made,\u201d Ms Smith said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis needs to change. The victims must be given appropriate consideration in these matters and the safety of the community must be the priority not just needs of the perpetrator,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere will never be an end to our overwhelming grief knowing that Emerald\u2019s killer, a forensic patient, can be released without the same checks and balances as convicted murderers when granted parole, including ankle bracelet monitoring for known killers and other violent forensic patients, like Emerald\u2019s killer, as proposed by Mr Philip Donato MP\u201d Ms Smith said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe system with oversight of forensic patients\u2019 needs a complete overhaul, and on Saturday when I join many who hope to prevent the same tragic acts of violence against women and children, I\u2019ll be calling on the NSW Government to step up and hear our voices crying out for support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhile I\u2019m incredibly grateful to all those who supported the amendments to the legislation, there is still so much more that needs to be done and we\u2019ll continue to fight for continued change to legislation and hold to account the Office of the Department of Public Prosecutions, the courts, the Mental Health Review Tribunal and NSW victim services for the decisions made that impact all victims of heinous crimes and the wider community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen we walk on Saturday as part of the Community Rally Against Violence, we\u2019ll be saying NO MORE to the violence so many Australian women and calling on the NSW Government to hear our pleas to end the violence and implement vital changes to achieve this,\u201d Ms Smith said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe need our parliamentarians to put politics aside and stand with us – the people, the victims, and the families left behind. It\u2019s time for courage, not complacency. Enough is enough. It should not take a personal experience for our leaders to recognise the urgency. The time to fix this fractured system is now.\u201d said Ms Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ms Smith and other advocates will meet at Newcastle Museum and march to Foreshore Park to stand together for the 24 women who\u2019ve already lost their lives during the 19 weeks of 2025 – to demand real action from the NSW Government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe will be walking for my niece Emerald Wardle who was a beautiful and kind young woman, and all victims of heinous violent crimes so we hope the community will join us and bring their loved ones, their signs and their voices to help us create noise that cannot be ignored to bring about essential change,\u201d Ms Smith said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clare Collins, Chair of Advocacy Australia said, \u201cOnly by standing together to say NO MORE violence against women and children, can we as a society ensure a safer future for everyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TOMORROW, Saturday, 10th May at 12pm, the aunt of 18-year-old murder victim, Emerald Wardle, will be co-hosting the Community Rally Against Violence in Newcastle, to honour her niece and all women and children who fall victims of heinous crimes. \u201cSo far this year, 24 women in Australia have been murdered, and by the time we … Continue reading “COMMUNITY RALLY AGAINST VIOLENCE – NEWCASTLE”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newcastle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32623"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32624,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32623\/revisions\/32624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}