Australia Says #ThankYouRosieBatty

Social media has been flooded with messages of gratitude for Australian of the Year and domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty.

As she prepares to hand over her title as Australian of the Year, hundreds of supporters have turned to Facebook and Twitter to say thank you under the hashtag #ThankYouRosieBatty.

People shared their own experiences of domestic violence while praising Batty’s “courage, resilience and tireless hard work” to bring attention to the scale of the issue in Australia.

The campaign was started by Hannah Gissane and Amy Blain, who both have experience working in the domestic violence space.

Blain told Pro Bono Australia News she wanted to recognise everything Batty had achieved and inject some positivity into an area that is often shrouded in negativity.

“She’s had a massive impact. Rosie is someone who continually recognises the strength and advocacy of the sector,” Blain said.

Despite only launching the campaign at 10am on Tuesday, Blain said it had already received US media coverage and had been shared by many high-profile women throughout Australia.

The campaign was also trending on Twitter throughout Australia.

Batty became the face of domestic violence in Australia when her son Luke was killed by his father in February 2014.

Last month Batty topped Pro Bono Australia’s annual Impact 25, which received more than 13,000 votes to select the 25 most influential people in the Australian social sector.

She said at the time that she had worked endlessly during 2015, speaking at over 50 events and reaching around 70,000 people, and that she felt Luke would have been proud of her.

“He obviously would be really proud but I think all children are very embarrassed by their parents, they always say that,” Batty told Pro Bono Australia News.

“I think he would have started off by being really embarrassed and think, ‘oh my God, what are you doing?’ And then I think as he’s seen what I’m doing and the way that people have just warmed to me… I think Luke would feel really pleased that I’ve found a space for myself and tried to find a life without him.”

Batty said despite handing her Australian of the Year award onto someone else later this month, she would not relent in her fight against domestic violence and would spend 2016 working on her biggest frustration, the “resistance of the judicial system, and the main area of problematic, systemic unaccountability that they have, and the damage that does”.

“I think that’s a big challenge, and I’m sure that everybody goes to work believing that they’re doing the right thing,” she said.

#ThankYouRosieBatty for your courage, resilience and tireless hard work to end family violence and #VAW. You're the voice Australia needed.

— Tara Moss (@Tara_Moss) January 12, 2016

#ThankYouRosieBatty for your tireless work putting family violence on the national agenda. #NeverAlone https://t.co/jfSawAzMYw

— Julie McKay (@JulieEMcKay) January 11, 2016

Rosie Batty as Aust of Year has saved lives. She is a remarkable (& genuinely funny) person. I count her as a friend #ThankYouRosieBatty

— Jane Caro (@JaneCaro) January 12, 2016