Violence against women is a “whole of society” issue that is in the “national interest to deal with”, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared today while unveiling a number of new and existing measures to form part of his government’s response.
Speaking after the cabinet meeting of state and territory leaders that was organised following the horror spate of male violence against women in recent months, Albanese said the leaders had achieved a “constructive meeting” and have promised to return next quarter to share progress.
The National Cabinet agreed to strengthening system responses, with a focus on high-risk perpetrators and serial offenders, and to report back on work undertaken later in the year.
Funding announced at the Commonwealth level included $925 million to support the Leaving Violence program for the next five years. Amounting to $185 million a year and enabling those eligible to access up to $5000 in financial support, it marks a good first step but falls short of what advocates and service providers will be expecting to meet the challenge.
Social services minister Amanda Rishworth said that through evaluation and redesign of the pilot programs, they have seen how the program helps women who may have otherwise “fallen through the cracks” to support and connect with the support services they need.
Albanese said violence against women is an “issue for all of us to work together” and said it is “in the national interest to deal with what is a scourge of violence against women that is having a real impact out there, with one woman every four days losing their life at the hand of a domestic or former domestic partner.
“This is indeed a national crisis which is why we convened this meeting,” he said.
Albanese also said on today’s cabinet meeting that all state and territory representatives shared their input, and that together they determined a range of ways with practical and immediate steps for moving forward. He said their next meeting will address the different approaches being shared across the country, and “how there can be more uniformity going forward.”
The National Cabinet statement shared the “importance of housing reforms in supporting women and children escaping violence.” It also noted that leaders had agreed to strengthen prevention efforts through “targeted, evidence-based approaches” while also being informed be an ‘expert-led rapid review of best practice approaches.”
The statement noted that the leaders had agreed that “system responses need to be strengthened” with a focus on high-risk perpetrators and serial offenders to prevent homicides. They noted agreement on a range of work to be undertaken and reported back to the National Cabinet later this year which included tasking a Police Ministers Council and Standing Council of Attorneys-General with developing options for improving police responses, as well as an agreement to improve information sharing about perpetrators across systems and jurisdictions, led by the Minister for Women Katy Gallagher. The leaders also agreed to explore opportunities to strengthen national consistency and drive best practice approaches across jurisdiction — including on responses to sexual assault and relating to risk assessment, a project to be led by Victoria and South Australia.
Albanese also shared a number of online measures that will be taken to address extreme misogyny online, noting concerns expressed by parents about young boys and men being exposed to violent videos and imagery online. He said his government will introduce legislation banning the creating and distribution of deepfake pornography, it will also bring ford the Online Safety Act which outlaw doxing, a year ahead of schedule. The next phase of the Stop It At The Start campaign will launch midway through the year, running until May 2025.
Also speaking today, Communications minister Michelle Rowland said digital platforms influence culture and our social lives, and “they have a fundamental responsibility to step up and do more.
She said that while digital platforms may not be creating the content themselves, they play a significant role in what people see. “We must ensure that our community standards are respected online as well as offline.”
Next week, a roundtable will be held with experts to discuss priority areas for preventing homicides with family and domestic violence experts and the family and domestic violence commissioner Micaela Cronin. She described today’s discussion as being a “unified” one and noted there were “very consistent themes” brought up, and was positive about the commitment from the leaders to regroup next quarter to report on efforts being made across the country.