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In 2014, the NSW government’s Tackling Violence program focused on country rugby league clubs and was supported by rugby league stars and greats.
Contrast this with last week, where a court fined the 100-kilogram Kirisome Auva’a $3000 for domestic violence and criminal damage after he slammed his ex-girlfriend into a wall and trashed her house.
No conviction was recorded. His employer, South Sydney, fined him $2000 and imposed a pre-season one-week suspension.
Two parts of the Tackling Violence program are particularly relevant to the completely inadequate penalties leveled at Kirisome Auva’a.
Regional clubs are sponsored $3000 to present the campaign to players and to sign a code of conduct that commits to penalising players for domestic violence. Penalties affect the entire team because offending players are excluded from games and other club events.
Players are also expected to attend compulsory hour-long workshops delivered at their clubs by former NRL players and Tackling Violence ambassadors.
Contrast these expectations with Auva’a’s paltry fine, the meaningless out-of-season suspension and the fact that he was too busy to attend a behavioural change program. Auva’a suffered no real penalty and nor did his club.
The woman he assaulted seems to be the only person in the sorry tale who has a grip on reality, not that anyone’s listening to her common sense analysis of the situation.
“He’s never lived with any form of consequence to help him learn,” she said.
The Head of the NRL’s newspeak-named Integrity Unit’s hollow spin is the final nail in the contempt coffin. Saying that “the NRL will meet with Souths to determine if any additional sanctions or actions are appropriate” is a slap in the face to any woman who’s been belted by a man, makes a mockery of Tackling Violence and should have female rugby league supporters up in arms.
In the NRL, domestic violence has gone professional.
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