Radio interview - ABC Canberra
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E&OE
ADAM SHIRLEY, HOST: Right now with us at 8:40 on Breakfast is Katy Gallagher. She is a Senator for the ACT, she is the Minister for Women and Finance amongst other things. Minister for Women Katy Gallagher, thank you for your time today on Breakfast.
SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR WOMEN: Thanks for having me on, Adam.
SHIRLEY: Why did you want to attend the rally yesterday?
GALLAGHER: Well, I’m a local Canberran and I’ve been attending marches for women I think for decades. So I don’t think I’ve missed one, really. So it’s a shame that we’re here still doing it decades on, but it was important, you know. We need to send a message and say that violence against women and children is unacceptable and when we do that en masse, it’s a very powerful thing and it supports victim survivors and it recommits all of us to doing whatever we can to end this massive problem that effects so many thousands of Australians.
SHIRLEY: Why is it, do you believe, we’re still having to do this decades on with the rates and the real lives of women and others being impacted so badly?
GALLAGHER: I think if we had the answer to that, you know, or if it was an easy answer, we would have already addressed it –
SHIRLEY: Do you have a few clues though?
GALLAGHER: Well, look, I think governments can only do so much. We can fund programs, we can work with the authorities, we can work with states and territories, we can fund women’s organisations and you know, provide shelter and support for women and children escaping violence. But you know, what leads to violence is a much harder thing to crack, which is attitudes towards women, issues about dominance and control and coercion and you know I think for many young men, they’re the – they’re part of the answer, how we make sure that they aren’t growing up another generation where there is you know this significant kind of attitude to women which leads to violence.
SHIRLEY: Yeah. On that, and this is I guess I’m asking you as a human being here, is there a percentage – however small or large, the debate rages on that – of men who see violence as an answer? Dominance as their role? And that they, deep down, think this is how it has to be? And can you do anything about that?
GALLAGHER: Well, there’s certainly a group that does feel that way because that leads to the statistics that we’re all seeing and we often concentrate on the women that have paid with their lives, and how many of those that have died, and we think about them every day and we acknowledge them and the loss for their families. But it’s the thousands and thousands of women who are hospitalised, traumatised, children who are witnesses and victims themselves of violence, this is a big problem. And it’s predominantly performed by men. Now, that is not to say that all men are violent towards women, that’s ridiculous, there are – I think part of the discussion we have to have is to make sure we’re not alienating the group of men who would never commit violence against women or children but in some way feel alienated from the conversation about how to respond to what we’re seeing. And that’s something I think we need to put more effort into.
SHIRLEY: A complex situation. It is 8:43, Adam Shirley with you as is the federal Minister for Women, Katy Gallagher, she’s an ACT Senator too. Minister, can you understand, it would seem at least some of the organisers and attendees at yesterday’s rally at Parliament House – can you understand why they did not want politicians there and are upset about how that whole situation has unfolded?
GALLAGHER: Look, there was certainly a lot of emotion at the rally that I attended. Completely understandable. There were a lot of women and children there who had experienced violence, either family violence or sexual violence. And so, you know, that is a really difficult thing to do to show up when you have been a victim survivor of that circumstance and it was palpable in the room. But you know it’s also important – when I think, the Prime Minister of the country walking with us, doing the 5k walk, sitting down on the grounds on Federation Mall and listening to someone talk about their own experience and that – Sarah Williams spoke for over half an hour – sitting there and listening, there is something also very powerful in that. And we are allies in this. We are there to show solidarity and support and, and to commit and recommit as the Prime Minister said yesterday, to doing more. We recognise that and we all need to work together.
SHIRLEY: I wonder whether yesterday, and hindsight’s an easy thing sometimes, but in hindsight, whether the Prime Minister, yourself, Minister Amanda Rishworth, were best, as you say, to sit, to listen and to attend and leave it at that? Is that a reasonable thing that might have been a better course of action given yesterday’s circumstances?
GALLAGHER: Well, that’s what we were happy to do and that’s what we were – you know, we were sitting, listening and the crowd wanted to hear from the Prime Minister.
SHIRLEY: Okay. They did? Okay.
GALLAGHER: Well, they started saying speak, speak, and in the end we were happy to sit and we told the organisers that we would attend and that we would listen and then it turned in, you know –
SHIRLEY: It turned contentious, let’s be honest.
GALLAGHER: As, well, as rallies do. Feeling on the ground and the topics they were discussing, unsurprisingly people knew the PM was there and they wanted to hear him in the end. But yeah, I mean, anyway, the bigger issue here Adam is that everyone at that rally was on the same page about the fact that violence against women and children is at unacceptable levels in this country and that enough is enough. And I was proud to sit with our Prime Minister for over an hour and a half or walking and sitting with him, listening to that and being a part of that. It’s about being part of our community as well.
SHIRLEY: Wednesday’s [National] Cabinet meeting is crucial in this regard, we do really appreciate your time in being available to speak with us today. Because it’s such a complex and emotive and challenging issue. Minister, thank you.
GALLAGHER: Thanks. Bye, Adam.