TRANSCRIPT:
This year alone, 28 women in Australia have been killed in acts of gendered violence.
As the nation grapples with the escalating crisis, National Cabinet has held a snap meeting.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says everyone understands the urgency.
"This is indeed a national crisis and it's a national challenge. And we're facing this with the spirit of national unity. Today is about who we are as a nation and a society."
State and territory leaders have now agreed on a way forward.
Queensland Premier Steven Miles says there's been broad agreement that response systems need to be improved to reduce the number of domestic violence casualties - and that there needs collaboration between governments and jurisdictions to monitor high risk individuals and repeat offenders.
"This is a national problem that requires solutions at every level of government, and it's important symbolically that the leaders of our country are united in our determination to eliminate violence against women, to eliminate domestic, family and sexual violence."
On the national level, Anthony Albanese says the way forward will start with making a payment permanent for people fleeing violence.
"The government will invest $925 million over five years. It will be included in the budget in two weeks' time to permanently establish the Leaving Violence program so those escaping violence can receive financial support, safety assessments, and referrals to support pathways. Those eligible will be able to access up to $5,000 in financial support along with referral services, risk assessments, and safety planning."
The $5000 payment will be split: with recipients receiving $1500 in cash and $3,500 in goods and services.
Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth says they're convinced this will help more women leave violent situations.
"This program will provide victim survivors with the financial support, risk assessments, safety planning, and referrals to other essential services at that critical time when they are making the decision to leave. Through the evaluation and re-design of the pilot programs, we know that this program not only assists with financial support, but also helps women that may have otherwise fallen through the cracks to connect with other supports."
In the meantime, the government has also released a plan to reduce children's access to pornography and tackle online misogyny.
A pilot of age assurance technology to protect children from harmful online content like violent pornography, and new laws to ban the distribution of non-consensual 'deepfake pornography'.
'Deepfake' uses Artificial Intelligence [[AI]] to create and alter sexually explicit material, which is often used as a form of abuse against women and girls.
Micaela Cronin is the Commonwealth Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner.
"We have a national plan, which is a very good national plan. But no plan in such a complex area can be a set-and-forget plan. We need to be constantly looking at what is emerging and changing and absolutely technology change is a part of that. And we need to be looking at what do we need to prioritise."
Dr Simon Copland from the Australian National University studies online hate among so-called "men's rights" groups.
He says that the announcement on deepfake technology and harmful online content will only go so far in addressing the root causes of these problems, which often start offline.
"In reality it's all a bandaid solution for this problem. The government's only talking about $6.5 million when it comes to these particular measures. And that's a tiny amount. It's a real a drop in the ocean for what is a very big problem."
Dr Copland has told SBS there are significant challenges in trying to tackle the issue of online abuse.
"It is really, really difficult to really police this stuff online. The biggest issue is that there are so many websites, so many forums, so many different platforms, so much content out there that it's virtually impossible to keep track of it all. And when you crack down in one place, the content moves to another place and you end up in a kid of game of whack-a-mole, in which you're hitting here and it pops up somewhere else."
National Cabinet has agreed to reconvene on the issue in the next financial quarter - and a round-table discussion is set to be held in Canberra on Tuesday, which will be attended by researchers and people with experience in the field of domestic violence.
But there's some concern that these commitments may not be enough to support the numbers of women fleeing violence.
Sue Webeck is the CEO of the Canberra-based Domestic Violence Crisis Service.
"I'm nervous that this is a great announcable that is not going to have the depth or impact that we would hope to see across our community. I'm worried about how we support the community in the model of service delivery that we're funded, to support their applications through to EVP and how we manage that. It's not exactly what we were hoping for."
Anthony Albanese says he understands there is much work to be done.
But he says these measures are a step in the right direction.
"Can we be satisfied when a woman is losing her life on average every four days? Of course not. Of course not. I'll tell you when I'll be satisfied. I'll be satisfied when we eliminate this as an issue."
