‘Deliberately’: Albo shuts down male reporter

Anthony Albanese has shut down a male reporter, saying he was prioritising questions from women while unveiling a new multibillion-dollar package to support frontline services fighting family violence.

Speaking to media alongside state and territory leaders on Friday after a convening of national cabinet, the Prime Minister announced a $4.7bn package to bolster frontline services for people fleeing family violence.

When taking questions on the plan, Mr Albanese pointed to a cluster of reporters, but stopped a male journalist as he began his question.

“I’m deliberately going to women before blokes,” he said, giving the floor to another journalist.

Under the plan, the federal government will pitch in $3.9bn, with states and territories picking up the rest.

Some $800 million will go specifically toward bolstering legal aid services, with a priority on responding to gender-based violence.

“We know that a nationally coordinated approach is required to address this national crisis,” the Prime Minister said.

“We must act to ensure women are safe. These horrific and disturbing deaths and vile violence must be prevented.”

But the newly announced federal relief is still some way off, with funds not set to start flowing through to organisations until 1 July, 2025, despite urgent pleas from critical frontline services for more support.

Legal Aid, which gives more than 32,000 family law grants of aid and 14,000-plus duty lawyer services for domestic violence a year, has painted a similarly grim picture, saying it has needed to turn people due to capacity limit.

Meanwhile, new analysis from Homelessness Australia revealed domestic violence victims’ access to homelessness support services has worsened in the past five years.

In the 2022-23 financial year, nearly one in four (23.1 per cent) in need of short-term or emergency accommodation had missed out on services.

In 2017-18 that figure was at 20.8 per cent.

Victoria Premier Jacinta Allan discusses why Victoria's domestic violence rates are lower than other jurisdictions at the National Cabinet meeting. "We held a royal commission into this back in 2016, and the outcome of that royal commission achieved a couple of things, it identified it was an absolutely a priority for the government," Ms Allan said. "Therefore, we had to build a system … for women and children experiencing family violence; there wasn't a system there that wrapped its arms around women and children and kept them as the centre of the system's focus but kept the perpetrator in view as well. "Let's be clear there is a long way to go."

The figures were bleaker for people seeking long-term housing, with 71.1 per cent unable to access services, another increase on it 65.3 per cent reported in 2017-18.

Asked about organisations that need support immediately, Mr Albanese said they would find comfort in “certainty”.

“We’re providing that certainty going forward,” he said, singling out legal services.

“What those legal services will benefit from is the certainty of knowing what is coming as they go forward.”

But Coalition women spokeswoman Sussan Ley took a different view, simply saying: “I don’t think that’s good enough.”

“The Government is saying, ‘We have done our job.’ No they haven’t,” Ms Ley told reporters.

“Come on, Mr Albanese. No money for 10 months? And no indication of more frontline domestic workers.”

CULTURAL CHANGE NEEDED

The Prime Minister said while governments had a role to play, funding could only go so far and cultural change was needed.

He said Victoria was “ahead of the country” in its approaches to combating young victims of family violence repeating harmful behaviour later in life.

“We know, tragically, that on so many occasions when one of these tragedies occur, the perpetrator will be someone who has experienced it in their own family situation when they were younger,” he said.

“So, how do we intervene to change that? How do we intervene to change the culture so that it is unacceptable for this to occur?”

The answer, at least in part, was expanding child-centric support services, according to Mr Albanese.

He also said national cabinet was “very conscious” of misogynistic material online affecting young minds.

But he stressed minimising the harm of such content was “something that government alone can’t do.”

“It’s something that parents are concerned about,” he said.

“It’s something that the media have a responsibility for, a role to play as well, in not giving prominence to some of those issues.”

He said it was a priority for the eSafety commissioner, who just recently opened up about the torrent of gendered abuse she received following a clash with tech billionaire Elon Musk.