“Right now,too many Australian women do not feel safe and too often,they are not safe,and that is not OK. There is no excuse,and sorry does not cut it,” Mr Morrison told a two-day women’s safety summit.
“As Prime Minister,I have a responsibility. Every Australian has a responsibility. Parents,schools,sports clubs,the media,every government,has a responsibility. And we have to do better and strive to be better.
“We have to talk about the way some men think they own women. About the way some women are subject to disrespect,coercion and violence. This must continue to change. Because if not now,when?”
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Mr Morrison read some letters and emails he had received from women detailing their experiences and said he could feel the rage,frustration and also exhaustion that nothing had changed.
The women’s safety summit,which will inform the development of the next national plan to reduce violence against women,wasorganised after the outpouring of anger about the treatment of women when former Liberal staffer Brittany Higginswent public in February with an allegation she was raped in Parliament House in March 2019.
Mr Morrison acknowledged this without naming Ms Higgins,saying what started as a conversation about “longstanding and serious failings in this very workplace” had turned into one about women’s experiences everywhere.