BREE Roberts knew she wasn't the only person horrified at the brutal murder of Brisbane mum Hannah Clarke and her children, Aaliyah, Laianah and Trey.
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"I couldn't stop thinking about it," Ms Roberts said.
"I came home Thursday evening and started asking around if someone was organising something in Newcastle.
"I decided if no-one had come forward with something organised in Newcastle by Friday, that I would jump in and put it together myself."
The result is Rally 4 Hannah and her children, to be held in Civic Park from 6pm on March 4.
Speakers include NOVA For Women and Children's Kelly Hansen, VOCAL's Kerrie Thompson, The Gender Research Network's Rachel Bond, Animal Justice Party MP Emma Hurst and Animal Justice Party Newcastle's Darren Brollo.
More will be announced in coming days.
Ms Hurst will speak about the link between animal abuse and domestic violence and Mr Brollo will speak about how men can "be allies" for women.
Ms Bond will lead a minute's silence at 7pm for Ms Clarke, her children and the eight other Australian women murdered this year.
"I just felt like the outrage I was feeling, the anger, the sadness, I knew there would be other people in the community feeling the same," Ms Roberts said.
"I think it's very important for the community to have an outlet to express grief and emotion.
"I think it's important for us to continue to speak out, keep the dialogue open and break the silence surrounding domestic violence, so we can give women strength to demand what we deserve, which is safety and to live our lives without the fear of violence and murder."
Ms Roberts said the rally would honour Ms Clarke and her children and show her family and community "that we care", as well as call for the government to be proactive instead of reactive.
"They need to prioritise the safety of women and children - I don't think it's being prioritised," she said.
"One woman in Australia is murdered every week by her partner or ex partner.
"One or two young men were murdered in Sydney and it changed the entire nightlife laws, but women are being murdered weekly and nothing changes? It doesn't make sense."
She said the government could consider mandatory mental health counselling and ankle bracelets for perpetrators and security alert buttons for victims.
"It's not enough to stand up and make a speech when a tragedy occurs, we need to prevent the tragedy from happening," she said.
"It's not enough to wait until the next election for the government to make further promises.
"They need to change things now - how many women will die before the next election?"
Ms Roberts said she had been in two abusive relationships, one when she was in her late teens and one in her early 30s .
She said statistics about domestic violence didn't reflect the true size of the problem, because many people - including herself - didn't report to the police.
"There's a lot of shame you feel... that you're perhaps not as strong as you put forward to people," she said.
"The relationships never begin violently.
"They build up to forms of control and abuse. When people say 'Why didn't she leave?' it's because at the start of the relationship they're very charming.
"It starts with emotional abuse, builds to verbal abuse and once the abuser realises they can get away with that, they will move further into physical abuse.
"My last relationship also involved financial abuse - he took over my finances so I could not leave before the physical abuse started."
Ms Roberts said more than 200 people on Facebook had said they would attend the event and more than 1500 had said they were interested in it.
She said several women had offered their help.
"The response has been overwhelming," she said.
"Women have had enough and something needs to change."
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