Ariel Bombara has delivered a harrowing account of the gut-wrenching dread she felt living under her dictatorial and abusive father and denounced the burden women carry for men's violence. The daughter of Floreat double-murderer Mark Bombara was the keynote speaker of Perth's 34th March against Domestic and Family Violence.
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00:00The moment Ariel Bambara's father killed her mother's best friend and her 18-year-old
00:10daughter shared with hundreds.
00:12My father had turned up looking for mum and he didn't believe her when she said mum wasn't
00:17there.
00:18So he forced his way into their home.
00:21We heard Jenny say, Mark, put the gun away.
00:24Speaking before a march in Perth, the crowd gathered to honour those who have been killed
00:29this year, including Jennifer and Gretel Patelchus.
00:33It was the knowledge that after eight weeks of meticulous safety planning, eight weeks
00:37of predicting and staying ahead of his behaviour in the most terrifying game of cat and mouse,
00:43he was about to do everything we thought he was going to do to us to somebody else.
00:48She recounted a childhood marred by violence and her desperate plea to warn police of her
00:54father's behaviour.
00:55I fought for eight weeks against every person that tried to convince us we were overreacting.
01:00The police who dismissed us, the people who said, oh, but he doesn't rape you or hit you
01:05so it can't be that bad.
01:08All I can ask is, do you believe me now?
01:12She shared the heavy burden placed on women for the actions of men.
01:17We weren't the ones to pick up that gun, yet we must live the rest of our lives paying
01:22for his crimes.
01:23A police internal review into the murders and the weeks leading up to the tragedy is
01:28still ongoing, officers today admitting they sometimes fall short.
01:33We don't get it right all the time and on occasions we're involved in incidents that
01:38have gone tragically wrong.
01:40The state government promised coercive control laws to criminalise the behaviour, but has
01:45shelved the legislation until after the election.
01:49Our government has committed to criminalising coercive control.
01:53We will do it in a staged way, we will do it in a way where we will know we will get
01:58results.
01:59I want to actually see real action.
02:01The coercive control legislation is something the Liberal Party has committed to for a number
02:05of years.
02:06We remain committed to it.
02:07We would have stayed in Parliament, for another week, to get it through.
02:10Knowing that Jenny and Gretel lost their lives in our place has filled me with both devastation
02:15and an overwhelming sense of duty to do everything in my power to prevent this from ever happening
02:20again.
02:21A powerful message in the midst of grief and frustration.