Snoop Dogg isn’t AFL’s biggest issue on violence against women

Last week, the AFL announced that the US rapper Snoop Dogg would headline pre-game entertainment on Grand Final day — an announcement that was promptly met with condemnation from some Victorian-based organisations dedicated to the prevention of violence against women. They demanded the rapper be dumped due to his history of misogynistic and sexually explicit lyrics. 

The choice of Snoop Dog to perform at the Grand Final, they claimed, was “dangerous” at a time when the femicide rate in Australia is on the rise.

Last month, at an event that was greeted very differently by those same violence prevention advocates, the Carlton Football Club held its 10^th annual Carlton Respects round at the MCG. On LinkedIn, the event was described by some of those advocates as a “brilliant example of the value of utilising sporting organisations as a vehicle through which to educate and drive social change”.

According to the club’s announcement, the Carlton Respects round is designed to promote “gender equality, striving for a future free of violence”.

But the photos and commentary that filled social media feeds the weekend of the Carlton Respects round — when compared and contrasted to the uproar last week around Snoop Dog — perfectly illustrates the troubling cognitive dissonance of some in the women’s safety sector, who struggle to adequately acknowledge and address the role that industries that cause harm play in driving high rates of men’s violence against women, particularly gambling and alcohol. 

Nowhere in the many complimentary posts featuring the smiling faces of high-profile leaders from Victoria’s women’s safety sector was there any mention of the Carlton Football Club’s continued reliance on gambling revenue, a decision the club’s leadership took despite evidence illustrating the contribution of its own club-owned pokies machines to higher rates of family violence. 

In the 2024-25 financial year Carlton earned more than $10 million from its four venues, according to recently released Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission data. 

In 2018, a report authored by Charles Livingstone, an associate professor in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University, found areas that host AFL-run pokies machines experience significant increases in family violence. As a result, many clubs have since chosen to get out of the gambling business, leaving only four Victorian clubs with any gambling interests: Carlton, Essendon, Richmond and St Kilda. The award for the highest number of pokies machines goes to Carlton, which has 300 machines distributed across four venues in Melbourne. 

Also in 2018, a La Trobe University Centre for Alcohol Policy Research study found that domestic assaults increase by more than 40% in NSW on the nights of State of Origin games. In Victoria, police have reported a 20% increase in family violence on AFL Grand Final day. And a 2019 FARE study found 17 of 18 men’s AFL clubs accept money from the alcohol industry in return for promoting alcohol brands.

But again, no mention of the links between alcohol consumption and domestic violence in the many social posts from the Respect round.

We have heard endless soundbites about the importance of sport as a “setting” for the “primary” prevention of violence against women (stopping it before it starts). But none of the leaders who turn up at the signing ceremonies or launches of these types of initiatives (of which there have been many) have, at least publicly, acknowledged this tension. 

How long are we going to carry on with alcohol and gambling, so profitable, and with such powerful industry lobby groups, effectively the third rail of primary prevention we dare not touch, especially in “sports settings”? And how long are we going to allow the role of industries that cause harm to be relegated to a second order consideration in the national framework that guides prevention work? 

Asking these questions in a sports mad nation like Australia is deeply unpopular. But the Carlton Respects round is now akin to the infamous White Ribbon Day military flyovers of days gone by when an entirely symbolic gesture on the part of the military belied the high rates of gendered violence that continued unchecked within its ranks. 

Featured among the congratulatory posts about the Carlton Respects round was Patty Kinnersly, who is the vice president of the Carlton Football Club. She is also the CEO of Our Watch, the country’s leading organisation tasked with the “primary prevention” of violence against women. 

While neither I (nor Crikey) is suggesting any wrongdoing, it’s valid to explore how this tension plays out within the dual roles of one individual. Our Watch and its guiding framework for the primary prevention of violence against women, Change the Story, has been the subject of sustained scrutiny since July 2024 for, among other things, the way risk factors like alcohol and gambling are featured as “reinforcing factors” secondary to the gendered drivers of violence against women. 

When Change the Story was published a decade ago, it conceptualised the drivers of violence against women as entirely “gendered”, and for the purpose of simplicity they were publicly expressed as “gender inequality”. Gender equality, or “respect”, was the key to effective prevention, according to the framework. 

But everything else was deemed a second order consideration, characterised as a “reinforcing factor” that did not directly cause gendered violence. This included alcohol consumption, childhood experiences of trauma, socioeconomic inequality and other forms of discrimination, including race.

“I think, unintentionally, what that has meant is that anything else that’s put in the ‘other factors’ bucket has been disregarded, or minimised or excluded from discussions,” the then CEO of the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) Caterina Giorgi told The Project in July of last year when the controversy first erupted. “Governments have the information before them, whether they are including them in their reports, frameworks or not, we know that men are more likely to use alcohol at higher risk levels, and we know that when men are intoxicated, they’re more likely to harm a partner. Changing attitudes is necessary, but it is insufficient in changing behaviours.”

In September of last year, the Albanese government commissioned a “Rapid Review” into prevention approaches, which made a total of 21 recommendations. Among them: a total ban on gambling advertising, a more robust approach to alcohol regulation with a domestic, family and sexual violence lens, and an independent review of Change the Story, which the review criticised for “privileging one approach or lens over another” and designating “known risk factors for violence, such as child maltreatment, trauma, and substance abuse — as ‘reinforcing factors’, secondary to the gendered drivers of violence”.

The review continued: “While noting that these factors intersect with gender in many ways, this review recognises that, in practice, the division of risk factors into first order/second order issues has led to those secondary risk factors being deprioritised, and some completely neglected.”

After months of debate, which was further explored in Jess Hill’s recent Quarterly Essay, “Losing It”, Marcia Neave, the head of Victoria’s Royal Commission into Family Violence a decade ago, entered the chat. Neave wrote in a lengthy letter in response to Hill’s essay published in June:

“It is surprising it has taken so long to recognise the limitations of a strategy which places most of its eggs in the basket of addressing gender inequality.” And she laments, “the apparent lack of influence of the Victorian royal commission on the initial development of a national prevention strategy”. 

Crikey put questions to Our Watch including what Patty Kinnersley and/or Our Watch has done to address the “reinforcing factors” of violence against women or what Patty Kinnersly and/or Our Watch has done to advocate directly to the Carlton Football Club to reduce its reliance on gambling revenue — or to encourage the AFL more broadly to reconsider alcohol marketing partnerships.

Our Watch provided a statement from chair Moo Baulch: “Our Watch supports the critical and nuanced work done by specialist organisations that work to prevent the harms caused by gambling and alcohol misuse. These organisations have the unique skills and expertise needed to address these complex problems.

“Our Watch collaborates actively with various organisations to drive policy and practice change, strengthen advocacy and support efforts to create cultures of safety and equality for women.”

In response to a question about how Our Watch manages any real or perceived conflicts of interest arising from Kinnersly’s dual roles, Our Watch said, “Patty Kinnersly’s role with Carlton Football Club has always been fully disclosed, is regularly reviewed, and is actively managed in line with AICD best practice governance procedures by the board of Our Watch and its Finance and Risk Committee.” The full statement is included at the end of this article. 

Crikey contacted the Carlton Football Club and asked how it responds to criticism that its continued reliance on gambling revenue undermines its efforts to combat violence against women. The club did not respond by deadline. 

At a time when the femicide rate is increasing, we can’t afford to delay integrated and collaborative work across all the drivers of gendered violence. Gender equality is certainly a means of driving down rates of violence against women, but we can’t simultaneously give the alcohol and gambling industries a free pass.

If you or someone you know is affected by sexual assault or violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000.

For counselling, advice and support for men in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania who have anger, relationship or parenting issues, call the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491. Men in WA can contact the Men’s Domestic Violence Helpline on 1800 000 599.

Anyone affected by problem gambling can get immediate assistance by calling the National Gambling Helpline on 1800 858 858 for free, professional and confidential support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

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Declaration of interest: Kristine Ziwica worked at Our Watch establishing the National Media Engagement project from 2014 to 2016. She has not worked for Our Watch in a formal or informal capacity since then.

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Statement from Moo Baulch, chair of Our Watch

“Our Watch supports the critical and nuanced work done by specialist organisations that work to prevent the harms caused by gambling and alcohol misuse. These organisations have the unique skills and expertise needed to address these complex problems.

“Our Watch collaborates actively with various organisations to drive policy and practice change, strengthen advocacy and support efforts to create cultures of safety and equality for women.

“Patty Kinnersly’s role with Carlton Football Club has always been fully disclosed, is regularly reviewed, and is actively managed in line with AICD best practice governance procedures by the board of Our Watch and its Finance and Risk Committee.

“A separate senior executive leads Our Watch’s engagement with the AFL and its clubs, and engagement with Carlton is subject to additional scrutiny through our independent annual audit. Our Watch adheres to the highest standards in relation to the management of conflicts of interest and compliance with our general and statutory provisions under the Corporations Act and ACNC.

“Women are underrepresented in sports leadership roles and play a crucial role in shaping cultures of respect and equality. Our Watch is proud that its CEO brings a commitment to women’s safety to her voluntary role with the Carlton Football Club.”