The federal government will invest $925 million over five years to help women escape violent relationships and introduce new legislation to ban deepfake pornography under a suite of measures to combat high rates of gendered violence.
Anthony Albanese convened an urgent national cabinet meeting on Wednesday after declaring violence against women a “national emergency” following the killings of 27 women across Australia this year.
Following crisis talks, Mr Albanese announced the Leaving Violence Payment will be permanently established to help people experiencing intimate partner violence with the financial costs of leaving a violent relationship.
“Those eligible will be able to access up to $5,000 in financial support along with referral services, risk assessments, and safety planning. This commitment builds on measures put in place by our government to help address financial barriers to escaping violence,” the prime minister said.
Australia will also introduce legislation banning the creation and distribution of deep fake pornography and the sharing of sexually explicit material using technology such as artificial intelligence.
Citing growing concerns about the role of violent online content in normalising gendered violence, Communications Minister Michelle Rowland announced $6.5 million in the May budget for a pilot of “age-assurance technologies” to reduce children’s exposure to harmful content.
She announced a review with states and territories to examine options to reduce exposure to violent pornography, which will be done in collaboration with experts.
“I’m well aware as a parent of myself of two young girls, there is a weight that parents are feeling about how to help their children navigate the online environment,” she said.
“Reducing this exposure to harmful and degrading pornography will better protect the women and children of Australia and we will have more to say about our plans to strengthen online safety.”
On average in Australia, a woman is killed by an intimate partner every four days, while one in three women has experienced physical violence since the age of 15.
Opening the one-hour virtual discussion, Mr Albanese told state and territory leaders too many women across the country were dying from acts of violence and said the statistic of one woman killed every four days was “completely unacceptable”
“Too many children are growing up with trauma and too many children are growing up without their mums, and too many stories are ending in the same heartbreaking way. If we want to change this, then all of us have to take responsibility,” he said.
Mr Albanese said for many the issue of domestic violence was a “deeply personal” and vowed to take immediate steps to address long term cultural change.
“We are committed to dealing with these issues, and today, we want to reach some important outcomes building on the work that governments have done to date, but doing more because we know that not enough has been done,” he said.
More to come.