For survivor-activist Harrison James, speaking at his local rally calling for action on violence against women over the weekend felt like a turning point.
Mr James, who says violence against women and children ending begins with men, had hoped the momentum of the rallies would bring about huge groundbreaking change in the federal government's approach to gendered violence.
He feels let down by the outcomes of yesterday's National Cabinet meeting of all state and territory leaders, where the federal government committed to permanent funding to help women escape violence and a suite of online measures including an age verification trial to block children accessing pornography and legislation to crack down on AI pornography.
"It was disappointing, to say the least," Mr James says of the announcements.
"I think it was just a mere political manoeuvre attempting to slap a $925 million bandaid on the outcry that happened over the weekend."
The government has announced almost $1 billion over the next five years towards financial support for those escaping violence.
The Leaving Violence Program, an extension of the Morrison government's pilot that provided payments in October 2021, will now provide $1,500 in cash and up to $3,500 in goods and services for those eligible for the payment wanting to flee violence.
"When you compare that to the fact that they're spending over $50 billion in defence, it just makes you think as a survivor and someone that has experienced violence in many of its wicked forms... where the hell are their priorities?," Mr James says.
"We want to see investment in preventative measures to stop this in its tracks."
Maddie Graham, also an advocate with lived experience, says victim-survivors aren't being properly listened to still by the government, and the latest announcements from it reflect that.
"I just feel like again, like we're not being listened to. There's just so much of this dismissiveness and you feel it," Ms Graham says.
"We felt it at the rally. It just feels like a slap in the face and that no, our safety is not important."
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told ABC Radio National that federal, state and territory governments had made a step forward yesterday, but it was not "job done".
"This is something that governments are determined to take action on," Mr Albanese said.
"This isn't something where you wake up one day and take action, this is something that requires concerted action day after day, week after week, month after month by governments at all levels."
Mr Albanese said there would be "further steps forward" in the future, but would not detail whether there would be additional measures in the federal budget in a fortnight's time.
Frontline services still 'desperate' for funding
Some services have welcomed the announcement as a good first step -- including access to the payments for temporary visa holders, who have been unable to easily access one-off payments when leaving violent situations in the past.
But the co-founder of advocacy group Fair Agenda, Renee Carr, says frontline services, that will be receiving everyone who might be accessing the leaving violence payments, are still "desperate" for more funding.
"It's a positive first step, but on its own, it's nowhere near enough and particularly doesn't do enough to address the many, many services who aren't able to assist the women already reaching out to them," Ms Carr says.
"Specialists domestic and family violence services specialists sexual assault services, legal assistance services, they're all calling out for funding to meet demand, and the government's need to provide it."
Ms Carr says women's legal services have to turn away 52,000 women every year because they're not funded to meet demand.
She adds that family violence, legal services who do "really vital work" in First Nations communities have been calling for an urgent and immediate boost to their capacity to support families.
Age assurance, verification
The government yesterday also announced online measures in a bid to tackle "misogyny and the harm it creates". One measure, a pilot of age verification technology to protect children from harmful content, would address the "easy access to pornography for children and young people and tackle extreme online misogyny, which is fuelling harmful attitudes towards women", it said.
Last year the eSafety commissioner gave recommendations to introduce age verification for online adult content, but the government has not yet adopted them.
Maree Crabbe is the director of It's Time We Talked, a violence prevention initiative focused on addressing the impact of pornography on young people.
"It's a cautious first step to look at what might potentially be a very significant strategy for preventing and suddenly reducing children and young people's exposure to pornography.
Ms Crabbe says young children are exposed to high rates of violent and misogynistic content, which social media platforms are enabling.
"We can't leave it to parents to navigate the influence of a multi-billion-dollar global industry. We need government and inter-governmental organisations to step in and regulate."
Alcohol absent from discussions, decisions
Advocates like Mr James and Ms Graham, and many other victim-survivors, want to see more informed choices from the federal government in its language and its measures.
"I would have liked to have seen a real emphasis on victims and survivors with lived experience being at the forefront of these changes and be consulted," Mr James says.
He thinks there were many announcements the federal government could have made yesterday for prevention, including strengthening mental health education programs, enforcing laws to hold perpetrators accountable and removing good character references in court trials.
He says other causes of violence against women such as gambling and alcohol are often ignored by the government because he thinks "they fear the backlash from these behemoths of industries".
"And that's tough because the answers are there, and activists and advocates well before me have been suggesting these ideas for years and years and years," he says.
The chief executive of Alcohol Research and Education, Caterina Giorgi, criticised the participants in the National Cabinet meeting for not making any commitments that address the role alcohol plays in fuelling men's violence against women and children.
She described the lack of announcements as a "deafening silence from Australia's leaders", and a "devastating blow".
Ms Graham, 26, is still disheartened by the government's suite of measures, arguing they haven't gone far enough.
"How many more, how many more women have to die before it's actually taken seriously?," Ms Graham says.
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2024-05-01 18:47:17Z
CBMiaGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDI0LTA1LTAyL3N1cnZpdm9ycy1hZHZvY2F0ZXMtZXhwZXJ0cy1yZXNwb25kLXRvLW5hdGlvbmFsLWNhYmluZXQvMTAzNzkyNDIw0gEoaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuYWJjLm5ldC5hdS9hcnRpY2xlLzEwMzc5MjQyMA
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