SARAH HARRIS, CO-HOST: We’re joined now by federal minister Katy Gallagher. Katy, a lot of my female friends, they’re feeling really afraid at the moment. You’re the Minister for Women, what are you hearing about how women are feeling?
SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR WOMEN: Well, thanks for having me on. I think unfortunately the women in my circle, the people I talk to are saying exactly the same thing as you just mentioned. Women don’t feel safe. All of the issues we’ve seen, all the violence that we’ve seen, particularly in the last month but really if you look at the statistics it goes much longer than that, means that young women don’t feel safe, older women don’t feel safe. And we have to have an honest conversation about how we confront what is an epidemic in this country, which is violence against women and often women and children.
WALEED ALY, CO-HOST: It just strikes me as you say that, there’ll be men watching this who, they hear that general statement, but they don’t really know what it means. Can you maybe explain what it means to say that women don’t feel safe? Like, is it a day-to-day thing, is it a moment to moment thing, does it go up, does it go down? Just put some flesh on the bones I think for people who can’t access these things.
GALLAGHER: Certainly as you get older, it changes. You know, some of I guess the more sexual harassment and stuff that you get when you’re a younger woman, as you get older that sort of leaves. But then there’s other pressures. And I think people feel it about their ability to fend off something if it happened, how fast could they walk, how would they reach out for help. You know, so I think it comes and goes. And when you’re in a safe environment it probably leaves you. But when you’re out and particularly out alone or out with young children even, I think that feeling of what’s going to happen, how do I plan if something does happen, am I safe, should I park somewhere else, should I go out earlier, I think that’s something that women just live with. And it is a very different experience to men and I don’t know what the answer is about how we reconcile that. But part of it has to be that, I guess an acknowledgement of that, and more I guess men taking a role in addressing some of it.
HARRIS: And part of that is bringing men into the conversation. So, what would you say then to blokes who say look, I’m not violent, this is not my problem? What do you say to them?
GALLAGHER: I think the really constructive thing that men can do is talk to their friends, is when they’re bringing up their sons, when talking to sons about what’s happening at school, engaging them with what they’re engaging with on social media and genuinely intervening at that very local and very personal level. Because I think men often don’t talk about these things and probably because they think it doesn’t relate to me, or you know it’s not part of my life. But we know from the statistics that it’s part of a lot of men’s lives. So, I think men have a huge role to play, I think many men want to play that role, I just think perhaps they feel alienated from the conversation because they don’t think it relates to them where it certainly does.
HARRIS: The Prime Minister doesn’t seem prepared to call this a national emergency. Do you think it is?
GALLAGHER: Well, I think the Prime Minister has been very clear and I mean certainly I work with him very closely and I know how he sees this as a real priority. And certainly he and I have had a number of conversations about the complexities, because it isn’t a matter of someone waving a pen or even putting in heaps more money. I mean, it’s a much deeper and complex community problem. So, not one government will solve it, not one policy will solve it. It’s going to take a lot of effort from everybody, all governments, the broader community. And I think we all need to lean in and recommit to working out how we’re going to deal with it, because we can do a lot of things but we can’t do everything. And this country needs, in a sense, to face up to what’s happening here and how women feel in this country.
ALY: So, you mentioned this is not purely a government problem, it’s everyone has a contribution to make, but government does have a role to play. What are you going to do?
GALLAGHER: Well, we’ve got our National Plan and that sets a very clear direction. We’ve got all governments signed up to that and that’s to end violence against women and children in a generation. When I look at the amount of money that’s going in, a lot of the money goes into dealing with the results of violence against women. So, whether it’s Escaping Domestic Violence Payments that we now have as part of our social security system, we have paid Domestic and Family Violence Leave as part of our industrial relations system. So there’s all of that that we need to do, more resources, more support, make sure women are able to leave, make sure they’re able to have control, but we’ve also got to look at how we’re providing interventions and whether they’re keeping up with what we need to do. So I think we always need to keep policies on the table about, well is this actually making a difference? And if it isn’t, do we need to work out a better way of doing it? And we’re deeply committed to it. I think the broader Australian community are like, you know we need to deal with this and have that big national conversation and you know, if there’s something good to come out of I guess all the media attention over the last week or so, I think that’s a good start. The fact that we are having this conversation and hopefully trying to include men in that.
HARRIS: We’ve got to bring those numbers down, it’s a terrible tally. Katy Gallagher, thank you for your time.
GALLAGHER: Thanks for the opportunity.