With a list of five demands, thousands take to Sydney streets over gendered violence

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is being urged to declare a national emergency against gendered violence, with advocacy groups “begging” governments to do more to stop women being murdered.

Thousands marched in Sydney, Adelaide and Hobart on Saturday following a recent spate of horrific killings across the country, with sister rallies in Melbourne, Perth, Canberra, Brisbane and regional cities planned for Sunday.

Sydney attendees walked from Belmore Park to Hyde Park, holding signs reading, “I’d feel safer alone with a bear”, “Murder on the dance floor, on a run, in a park, at the shops, in our homes”, and “Men are like mushrooms: dangerous ’till proven otherwise”.

Rally organiser, victim-survivor and What Were You Wearing founder Sarah Williams said she was “begging” the government to act.

“By people turning up, it’s putting pressure on [the government]. They’re going to have to do something after these rallies,” she said.

NSW Premier Chris Minns, who is considering calls for a state-based royal commission into violence against women, attended the rally for nearly two hours, along with Housing, Homelessness, Mental Health and Youth Minister Rose Jackson, Regional Transport and Roads Minister Jenny Aitchison and member for Parramatta Donna Davis.

Organisers laid 32 flowers in Hyde Park, representing each woman killed in Australia so far this year. Advocacy groups say 27 of the women were killed in alleged domestic or intimate partner violence events, with the other five flowers dedicated to the women killed in the Westfield Bondi Junction attack.

The death of 30-year-old mother of four Erica Hay in Western Australia was announced hours after regional rallies on Friday night, with a man known to her assisting police with inquiries. The woman’s death is being treated as suspicious, but authorities have not determined how she died. Elsewhere, Emma Bates in regional Victoria and Molly Ticehurst in regional NSW were allegedly murdered this week by men known to them.