Last weekend, tens of thousands of Australians turned up across cities to protest an ever-increasing epidemic of violence against women.
Organised and championed by Sarah Williams, the founder of advocacy group What Were You Wearing, the No More rallies were to give voice to the 27 women already murdered this year at the hands of men, as well as thousands of victim survivors. They were intended to enable people of all ages to show up and demand more comprehensive action from their government and policy makers– because clearly we have a long road ahead and far more to do.
The power of these protests was seismic, they created a blazing spotlight for the crisis at hand and what we want to see.
Over the last few days however, the media has chosen a different focal point–and one that gets us nowhere nearer to long term change.
Instead of exploring the myriad issues raised by experts and victim survivors of abuse, the focus of the rallies has turned to an interaction between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and 23-year-old Sarah Williams, the courageous young woman who facilitated these events.
Having turned up to attend the Canberra protest on the lawns of Parliament House, Albanese and Women’s Minister Katy Gallagher stood back as Williams, a victim survivor herself, addressed the crowd. Their presence however, was met with heckles about what they planned to do and why they were even there. After querying Williams: “Do you want me to speak or not? I’m the Prime Minister”, Albanese took the microphone… Ultimately, he shouldn’t have.
What followed was a bad look for the government. Albanese claimed that he and Gallagher were denied the opportunity to speak at the rally, to which a visibly shocked Williams, uttered: “That’s a full-out lie”.
The Prime Minister may not have been aware, but Williams, in distress, then turned and burst into tears. It was uncomfortable viewing, to say the least, and Williams’ hurt was heartbreaking.
At the same time, a passionate Albanese did raise some strong points about demanding governments of all levels do better and promising to convene an emergency “national cabinet” this week to discuss “what we can do” to address the “national crisis” of violence against women. Tangible and immediate action isn’t something we’re used to seeing on the issue of violence.
Upon watching him speak, I was also struck with the memory of a petulant Scott Morrison refusing to even stand in solidarity with the Women’s March for Justice three years ago, before telling women we were lucky not to be “met with bullets” as a consolation.
Governments aren’t perfect, much less leaders, but my fear in hanging Albanese out to dry over this incident lies in what the alternative is.
We’re staring down the barrel of an election year in which margins are closer than ever. There is no guarantee that a Labor government will see another term. And for women in this country, that is a truly frightening prospect.
We may not be getting there as fast as we’d like, but we have momentum from this government on the issue of violence and other policy areas impacting women. We are seeing a higher level of understanding and appetite to do better than we’ve seen in decades.
Leaning into a narrative that Albanese is an ego maniac who hates women, isn’t just unhelpful it’s actively damaging. Because the truth is, we need this government to show up and keep coming to the party. We need them to listen, and enact policies based on what they’re hearing.
Should Albanese apologise to Williams and clear up the confusion? Certainly. Should he have endured the heckles? I think so.
But three years ago, we were begging for our Prime Minister to show some level of empathy and understanding for this very crisis. He didn’t. And my god, we were angry. I still am.
The reality is, we now have one who’s trying. We have a leader who’s admitted to his own personal experiences of domestic and family violence, who’s increased funding to key services and social housing and introduced 10 days of paid domestic and family violence leave as one of his first pieces of legislation.
Do we really think we would see better under a Coalition government led by Peter Dutton? Because that’s the alternative right now.