DAN TAYLOR, HOST: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, welcome. How are you going?
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning. Wonderful to be back in Hobart again.
TAYLOR: Oh, it's great to be here, too. And you're talking about Tasmania's newest suburb, which is very exciting. Tell us about this – community facilities, local shops, ferry terminals. Exciting.
PRIME MINISTER: It is so exciting. Down at Dowsing Point, where I was yesterday, I mean, it is pristine land right on the Derwent, and at the moment it's underutilised as a facility for the Australian Defence Force. And what we've done is do an assessment and right around the country of, okay, what are the assets that we need? How do we maximise it? And there's very few people located there permanently at the moment. And the fact is you can have a thousand homes, a real mix too of social housing, affordable housing, private rentals and homeowners, and a mix of densities. It's such a fantastic spot. And community facilities, sporting, a bit of space for the kids to kick a footy or chuck in a netball court. It is fantastic.
CHRISTIE HAYES, HOST:And how long do you anticipate this project will come to fruition, Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, there'll be planning and consultation with the community. Like, there's a Men's Shed there that we want to keep and make sure that that activity can still keep going for veterans. But we would hope that activity there on the ground starts next year. You know, the sooner the better. We need to build more homes, we need more houses. Supply is the key. I don't want the Australian dream of ownership to be something that we talk about other generations, not this younger generation, to be excluded from.
TAYLOR: And let's talk about that because everyone's still feeling the pressure from housing, groceries, energy prices. What is the Government's biggest priority right now when it comes to cost of living stress?
PRIME MINISTER: We want to get inflation down, so it's a very responsible budget. We had $64 billion of savings in the Budget that will make a difference. But we also want to prioritise what people need. And overwhelmingly, what young people have told us that they're most concerned about is the pressure of ever being able to get their own secure roof over their head.
HAYES: And Prime Minister, changing gears. Something that's very important to us on our show is the discussion of femicide in this country. And May is Domestic and Family Prevention Month. We've had a lot of conversations on this show for women and people that have been affected by this horrific statistic that we have in our country, which is a woman dying every four days in Australia at the hands of a violent man. So, I'm sure that you have heard about this, heard the crisis that we have. We've had four women killed in the last four days. The statistics are horrific. What do you, as Prime Minister, want to do about this? What's your government doing to make serious change in this country so that we eradicate this violence against women?
PRIME MINISTER: There's no place for violence against women in our society. We have $4.4 billion we're throwing at this. One of the parts of the Housing Australia Future Fund was to establish additional $100 million for crisis accommodation for women and children escaping domestic violence. We're putting 10 days paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave. We've got a Leaving Violence Payment that is permanent, of $5000. Many women feel like they're trapped in these relationships and because of economics, they simply can't get out. They haven't got any money. And often that can be used as coercion against women to try to keep them in those relationships as well.
HAYES: Oh, many times, and children used as leverage and whatnot. We see it every day.
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely.
HAYES: There's been 27 women killed this year alone.
PRIME MINISTER: It's 27 too many.
HAYES: And how do you feel about the 79 women killed from last year and the 106 women from the year prior?
PRIME MINISTER: Every single woman who suffers this fate is one too many. And we've put on an additional 500 family and children violence workers, community workers across the country. We've provided additional funding for legal services as well for women to access through community legal centres. We're throwing everything at this. This is a scourge. And we know, though, that government can't tackle it alone. We know that it's up to men to talk to other men about it. It's up to our society as well to just say, no, this is not acceptable. And across the board, and the work that you're doing, raising this in the media is very important part. Just bringing it out as well into the open and having these discussions, you know, we also need to make sure that we educate about this as well and tackle it from that perspective. But we're throwing everything we can at this issue.
HAYES: Thank you. And I just want to say respectfully too, Prime Minister, I think it's really important that you keep talking about it.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, absolutely.
HAYES: You know, we've seen four deaths in now four days of women, and we were yet to hear anything, any government official, especially yourself, Prime Minister, talk about it. And the more people talking about it in positions of power, as you say, men need to talk about it. You are the man that leads the nation and I think that we really need that leadership from you to address it. This is a crisis. I know that there is a call for a Royal Commission into the deaths of women. There's 90,000 signatures so far. What does your government feel about that? Will we see this Royal Commission?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, there’s calls for Royal Commission about everything –
HAYES: Well, I think the deaths of women are pretty paramount, wouldn’t you say?
PRIME MINISTER: – they are, but you've got to work out, what does a Royal Commission do besides fund lawyers? What we need here is solutions that we know. We know what they are, we know what's required here. And I understand that people, when confronted with an issue, will call for Royal Commissions. But we know that there's too much violence against women. We know what keeps women in these relationships. We know what's required in terms of the economic support to get out. We know there's a need for more alternative housing. We know there's a need for more counselling and for community workers. And we need to get on with action when it comes to these issues. That's something my Government is doing. You're right, we need to talk about it more and more as well.
HAYES: I think, as well, it's also a case of getting answers, answers for women that we've lost along the way. Women that didn't get justice.
PRIME MINISTER: Sure.
HAYES: And I think that that's what is a really imperative part of the Royal Commission. And I hope that that stays with you. It's not just about signatures and things moving forward. And yes, there might be a Royal Commission into everything, you might know that. I'm not a Prime Minister, I don't know how many you have on your plate. But I think when it comes to the deaths of many women in this country, thousands and thousands that we're talking about over the years, perhaps it might also be because they want justice too.
PRIME MINISTER: And they deserve justice. The question is, does the Royal Commission do that? That's the question. Royal Commissions, if they're just processes that take time, cost a lot of money, rather than money going into services, that's the question before people. I understand people calling for Royal Commissions. There have been a range of inquiries into these issues at the state level, right across the country. We're just not doing well enough as a society.
TAYLOR: And what do you think needs to change culturally for the next generation of boys to grow up with healthier attitudes towards women?
PRIME MINISTER: Men need to take responsibility, that's one thing. Quite clearly, if you look at the figures, it's very clear that most of us know someone, whether we know they're involved in these issues or not, it's so prevalent. I think that as well, issues like social media are having a role. The rise of these blokes online, some of whom are pretty famous, have made themselves famous who promote images which degrade women, which are all about somehow masculinity being about oppressing women. You know, we've got to call that out when we see it. I think there needs to be education of young boys as well. There's a fair bit of evidence, one of the reasons why we put in place the social media ban for under 16s is what young boys were getting exposed to at a very young age. Sexualisation of women, violence being put online that they have access to and somehow that behaviour are becoming normalised. The language that is used towards women by these so called influencers online as well. It's a major issue and that's one of the reasons why we introduced the social media ban.
HAYES: I just want to say Australianfemicidewatch.org as well, if you would like to sign the Royal Commission.
TAYLOR: We need all the support we can get and desperately needing those services to keep women and families safe. But thank you so much for joining us on the Dan and Christie Show. Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you. Looks like it's going to be a nice day out there.