Australia’s prime minister on Wednesday announced new funding to help women escape domestic violence and crack down on misogynistic online content.
It was a response to a rise in murders by current or former partners, which he described as a national crisis.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government would invest 925 million Australian dollars (480 million pounds) over the next five years to provide financial support to women and children fleeing violence.
The government also proposed new measures to tackle exacerbating factors of violence against women, such as violent online pornography and misogynistic content targeted at children and young people.
These measures include passing laws banning deepfake pornography and increasing funding for Australian regulators piloting age verification technology to protect children from harmful online content.
“This is truly a national crisis, a national challenge and we are facing this in a spirit of national unity,” Albanese told reporters after meeting with state and local officials.
Tens of thousands of people protested in cities across Australia last weekend to draw attention to the murders of 34 women allegedly resulting from acts of sexual violence in the past 12 months.
Government leaders are due to meet again in three months to discuss progress.
“I’m pleased that this is further progress,” Albanese told reporters.
“Can we be satisfied with the current situation where, on average, one woman loses her life every four days? Of course not,” the prime minister said.
“I will be satisfied when this issue goes away, when we stop talking about it, when women no longer feel the need to rally together.”
The Australian Institute of Criminology reported that 34 Australian women were murdered by an intimate partner in the 12 months to June 2023.
This is the latest financial year for which the institute has data and represents a 31 percent increase in the number of victims compared to the same period last year, when 26 women died.
According to Australian femicide researcher Sherrell Moody, 34 women have been killed in Australia so far this year.
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