E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC RADIO NATIONAL
FRIDAY, 22 May 2026

Topics: Flotilla; Second Action Plan; Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence.

SALLY SARA: The Federal Government is launching consultation to guide its efforts over the next five years to end violence against women and children. The Minister for Social Services, Tanya Plibersek, says the government knows for too many people, change is not happening fast enough. Tanya Plibersek joins me now. Minister, welcome back to Radio National Breakfast.

TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: Good morning, Sally.

SARA: Before we get to your portfolio, what's the latest information you have about Australians which were on board the flotilla which was trying to make its way to Gaza?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, the latest information I have is that there are 11 Australians now in Istanbul being assisted by our Australian authorities there. They are out of Israel now and in Turkey.

SARA: Have any of those Australians been injured or any dealing with illness after their detention in Israel?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Look, I'm sorry, Sally, I've only got the most basic details, that they're in Istanbul and being assisted by Australian authorities. I can't give you any more detail than that.

SARA: And just briefly, what sort of support is DFAT providing to the group?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Oh, all of the usual consular assistance. And my hope is that they'll be on their way home safely.

SARA: What did you think of the remarks of the Minister for Security in Israel, Itamar Ben-Gvir?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I thought the behaviour was shameful.
SARA: What do you mean?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I think it was disgraceful. I think it was absolutely disgraceful behaviour. And I'm very pleased to say that the Foreign Minister has said that in the strongest terms to the Israeli Government. Our Australian ambassador in Israel has made the position of the Australian Government very clear that this behaviour is completely unacceptable.

SARA: Let's return to your portfolio. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was asked about the government's response following calls for a royal commission into domestic violence. He was speaking with presenter Christie Hayes on Hobart Commercial Station hit 100.9 FM. Let's have a listen.

[Excerpt plays]

SARA: What did you make of the Prime Minister's tone in that interview? Did he get it right, Minister, in your view?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, I understand why people call for a royal commission into the deaths of women and into family, domestic and sexual violence, because it is one of the most important issues confronting us as a country. It's a huge issue with a huge impact on way too many people and way too many families. But I think the point the Prime Minister was making is that frontline workers will tell you, we've had eight royal commissions and major inquiries in recent years with more than 1,000 recommendations. We know so much of what we need to be doing. This is not a question we need to investigate. We know what drives gendered violence, we know what the solutions are. We have to get on with the action. And that's why today we're launching the consultation on our Second Action Plan on the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and their Children.

We need to keep evolving our response to make sure that we're keeping up with the changes that are happening in our society. So, one of the things we've noticed, for example, is that offences between young people, so victim younger than 18, perpetrator younger than 18, have really increased in recent years. We know huge impact of non-consensual choking in sex, I think being driven by some of the violent and degrading pornography we're seeing online that young people are exposed to from a very young age. That's gone through the roof. Tech-facilitated abuse, things like stalking apps hidden on phones and computers, again, gone through the roof. We need to keep evolving what we're doing to keep up with the changes that we're seeing. We need to keep investing. We need sustained action, Sally. And I understand that the calls for a royal commission are about how huge this problem is and how serious this problem is, but we've identified the problem now. We need sustained action on delivering on the things that frontline workers continue to tell us we need to do better on.

SARA: The way in which you're explaining that and the tone in which you're doing it sounds quite different from the way the PM was answering that question. On reflection, could there have been a better way to respond to that question? A more respectful way?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Look, I think it's unfair to suggest that the tone, look, I know Anthony cares about this. He was exposed to domestic violence as a child. He saw his mother exposed to it. He's spoken about that, not often, but he's spoken about that and the toll that that took in his family and on him as a child. It is something that we take seriously, from the Prime Minister, right through our government. We've invested more than any other government, $4.4 billion so far in additional measures to help keep women and children safe. Now, I'm not saying that's enough. I'm never going to say that it's enough. While a single person is frightened or subject to violence, I'm never going to say, job done, we can relax. We need to continue to drive the actions that we know make a difference. And I know the Prime Minister is committed to doing that.

SARA: Delia Donovan, who works on the front line of these issues, the CEO of Domestic Violence New South Wales. We spoke with her on the program a few days ago. She said she had real fear that Australians are getting numb to the term 'national crisis'. Is violence against women and children, is it understood fully the devastating impact that it has?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: No, it's not. And I have, I don't know whether to, I don't know how to describe this, but I have the responsibility of speaking so often with family members who have lost someone they love and speaking to people who've been impacted by violence in their daily lives. And I don't think you can overstate the toll this takes, the gap that's left when we lose someone and the lifelong impact of experiencing violence. I don't think you can overstate how important this is. The statistics are overwhelming. Police will tell you it's 60 per cent of their work and we know these crimes are underreported. Well, what does that mean? It means that this is every day, every hour, every minute impacting someone in this country in a way that profoundly changes their life. I don't think we can overstate its importance as an issue in this country and the responsibility on us as governments to lead. The Commonwealth government, the states and territories obviously have responsibility for a lot of the frontline service delivery, like policing, like courts, the justice response. And I would also say, Sally, that governments need to lead, but all of us need to change. All of us need to keep this front and center. Not just when another horrific death is reported, but always.

This is going to take our whole community to change. Violence is learnt as respect is learnt. And what we know is that for boys in particular, one of the best protective factors is having a close and loving relationship with a male role model, a father or a grandfather or a sporting coach or a teacher, that teaches them how to be a good, decent man and not use violence or control in interpersonal relationships. We know that we need to change women's ability to leave a relationship economically. We need to, you know, that's why we focus on things like reducing the gender pay gap and making sure we've got that $1.2 billion of crisis and transitional housing and making sure we've got that Leaving Violence Payment of up to $5,000, support and safety planning available.

We need to put all of these pieces together as a society, levels of government and, you know, if you're a sporting coach, if you're a teacher, if you're a parent, you have the greatest opportunity to make sure that we don't, generation after generation, continue these behaviours. One of the things that concerns me most right now is that offending rates where the both the perpetrator and the victim are under the age of 18, have ballooned, have really exploded. And what does that tell us about the incidence of violence in future generations if we don't address that now? We know that the needs of children who have grown up in families where there's domestic violence are not addressed in the way they need to be. We've started that, more than $80 million into children's counselling. But there's so much more we need to do for children. We need to make sure that our respectful relationships and programs in schools are actually making a difference from kindergarten right through year 12, not, you know, one guest speaker in year nine and then we forget about it. We need to make sure that our schools, all of our sporting clubs, all of us work together with the same message, that violence and control in relationships is never okay.

SARA: Tanya Plibersek, I appreciate your time this morning. Thank you very much for joining me on Breakfast.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Thank you, Sally.

ENDS