Sunrise presenter Nat Barr has called on Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers to address the “epidemic” of violence against women following the death of a young mother.
Molly Ticehurst, 28, was found dead at her home in Forbes, central western New South Wales, early on Monday morning. Her ex-boyfriend, Daniel Billings, 29, has been charged with her murder.
Police said Ms Ticehurst’s young son was not at the home where she was found and is safe.
The deceased woman’s ex-boyfriend had been arrested on April 5 on serious charges, but was released on bail about two weeks ago, The Daily Telegraph reports.
“The authorities knew this man,” Nat Barr told Anthony Albanese on Sunrise on Tuesday morning.
‘Can you commit to us this morning, with the budget around the corner, that the leaders of this country have a plan to stop someone they know from killing women?
‘We are doing this story, Prime Minister, every week. Well, each of those stories is too many.
Teacher’s aide and young mother Molly Ticehurst, 28, was found dead at a house on Young Street in Forbes, New South Wales, about 1.50am on Monday.
Nat Barr has demanded that Premier Anthony Albanese speak to Treasurer Jim Chalmers ahead of the budget to discuss how the government intends to stop violence against women.
Albanese agreed that the story was “horrible” and that “as governments we have to do more.”
‘As a society, we need to talk about this. “We need men and boys to debate these issues and provide support to women who find themselves in this situation, and we also need laws to keep up,” the Prime Minister said.
‘We need to support greater domestic violence funding for things like housing, so women have somewhere to escape to.
‘So they don’t feel trapped in a relationship.
‘One of the reasons we changed the single mother payment in this year’s budget was so that women would not feel that, because of their finances, they had no other option to escape a violent relationship.
‘That was one of Anne Summers’ findings in her really important report that she did for us.
‘So we need to do more, as a society, Nat.
“It’s obviously completely unacceptable that this is happening and that it’s so common.”
Albanese agreed that the story was horrific and that the frequency of these types of incidents was “completely unacceptable.”
Barr seemed unimpressed with the response and demanded that Albanese speak to the Treasurer before the budget.
‘Yeah, well, can you and Jim Chalmers talk about this?’ she said.
‘It’s an epidemic, men are being released on bail and crimes are being committed.
“We’re tearing our hair out, you know, it’s absolutely appalling and there are families all over Australia at the bottom of this pile and it’s heartbreaking.”
Ticehurst’s father Tony described Molly as “beautiful” and said she was loved by many.
He told Nine News he was furious that his ex-partner had been released on bail.
“If they had kept him in jail like the police wanted, we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” he said.
Billings was arrested Monday in Fifield, about 100 miles northwest of Forbes.
He was refused bail and will appear at Orange Local Court.
A crime scene was established and an investigation into the death was launched. Above, the rural street where his body was found.