Anthony Albanese has brushed off the claim by an organiser of rallies against gendered violence that he lied about being asked not to speak, blaming it on an “emotional” day and issue.
Albanese told Channel Nine’s Today Program that he “was happy not to speak” or “was happy to speak” but insisted the focus must remain on combatting violence despite the controversy over his contribution to the rallies.
At the No More rally in Canberra on Sunday, Albanese claimed that he and the minister for women, Katy Gallagher, asked to speak but had been told by the organisers that wasn’t possible.
Although not originally slated to speak, Albanese told the crowd that “society and Australia must do better”.
“We need to change the culture and we need to change attitudes. We need to change the legal system,” Albanese told the No More rally.
“It’s not enough to support victims. We need to focus on the perpetrators, focus on prevention.”
In a statement last night, rally organiser Sarah Williams from What Were You Wearing (WWYW) said Albanese’s office told her he was interested in walking, but not speaking.
“The prime minister of Australia lied to this country today,” Williams said in a post to Instagram.
“Representatives from Gallagher and Albanese’s offices both said this morning that they were sure Katy would be happy to speak. Not the prime minister.
“Myself and WWYW never denied him from speaking. He never asked to speak.”
“For him to not only demand he speak because he was being heckled, but lie was disgraceful.”
In response to the claim he had lied, Albanese told Channel Nine: “I’m focused on the issue … It was an emotional day for people and I get that, on what is an emotional issue. Because women were saying yesterday, enough is enough.”
Albanese praised the organisers, saying “they deserve credit for organising these rallies” throughout the country.
“I was happy not to speak. I was happy to speak. It was about raising awareness of the issue, but a call to action by all governments, quite clearly, we need to do more,” he said.
“It’s not enough to just have empathy. The fact that … a woman dies every four days, on average, at the hand of a partner, is just a national crisis.
“So I’ll be convening the national cabinet on Wednesday. We’ll talk about what more we can do. Clearly governments need to do more, but as a society as well, we need to acknowledge that we need to change behaviour.
“We need to change attitudes. We need to change culture, because it is completely unacceptable.”
Asked if he had cited his position as prime minister to demand to speak, Albanese told Channel Seven’s Sunrise “I’m not going to get into that sort of debate”. “This should not be a distraction from what is a very serious issue.”
Earlier Gallagher said she was “not aware” of an invitation for her and the prime minister to speak at the rally and that, after some discussions with organisers about the possibility “we weren’t on the speaker’s list”.
“We weren’t able to land that by the end of by the time the rally started,” she told Radio National.
“I think the rally expected to hear from their prime minister, so he stood up and spoke … He wanted to show that he was deeply interested in [and] cared about the matters that were being raised at that rally.”
Gallagher said there was “some concern about the demands … the five key asks that were being sought at that rally and … a commitment that they were seeking from us and we weren’t able to reach agreement on how to proceed”.
“So in the end, we decided to just walk and attend the rally and as a sign of respect, and as the sign of solidarity with women around the country.”
The five demands were: the declaration of a national emergency; mandatory victim blaming prevention training; alternative reporting options for violence victims, including specialist courts; the media to wait 48 hours before identifying victims of violence; and for the government to give better, more sustainable funding for relevant organisations.
Despite declaring violence against women a national crisis, Albanese told ABC News Breakfast he didn’t “want to get into a debate here that misses the point over whether it’s a national emergency or a national crisis”.
While a national emergency would trigger one-off payments, such as during a bushfire or flood, the prime minister argued what is needed is “not one-off actions” but a “concerted plan”.
“Because this is a scourge that hasn’t just come in the last week or the last month or the last year or the last decade. This is something that’s been around for a very long period of time.”
Albanese pointed to $2.3bn in Labor’s last two budgets for measures including the single parent payment, so that mothers don’t feel trapped financially in relationships.
“We need to have a discussion about the courts,” he said. “No wonder people are frustrated, when you have people out on bail, who have been alleged to have committed serious crimes against their partner, and then they go on to murder that partner. That causes frustration and anger.”
