Nat Barr confronts Anthony Albanese about rally organiser’s claims

The Prime Minister was pressed about claims he made to a rally organiser at the weekend after she went public today.

Anthony Albanese has refused to comment on claims he told an organiser at a women’s rally in Canberra “I run this country” and demanded to speak at the event.

The Prime Minister was pressed on the claims made by Sarah Williams, who has said publicly she was left in tears at the rally organised to call for action on violence against women.

There have been marches across the country since Friday following outcry at the alleged murders of 26 women by men this year – one every four days.

On Sunrise this morning, host Natalie Barr pressed Mr Albanese over what happened on the stage.

Ms Williams had earlier appeared on the program to claim Mr Albanese “flat-out lied” about initially being denied permission to address the rally.

“She says you’re on the stage with her and there’s confusion about who was going to speak and then you said behind her on the stage words to the effect of ‘I’m the Prime Minister and I run the country’,” Barr said.

“Did you say that?”

Mr Albanese replied: “Well I’m not going to get into that sort of debate.”

Barr again asked for a clear response to the allegations: “That unfortunately is the message that’s been sprouted.

“And we know it’s unfortunate, but you can put it to bed now.”

Mr Albanese said the country’s major media organisations were in attendance at the time. “Well people, including Channel 7, were there for the recording that went on, so you were all there,” he said.

“The media were all around, they heard everything that was said there.”

Earlier on ABC News Breakfast, Mr Albanese was asked by host Michael Rowland whether he had reached out to a “clearly … angry” Ms Williams.

“I wish Sarah well, she did very well in organising the rally, as did everyone there,” he replied.

Ms Williams appeared on Ben Fordham’s 2GB radio program on Monday, where she said “many people” heard Mr Albanese make the remark.

Fordham questioned why the Prime Minister did not take up the opportunity to deny saying the words he has been accused of: “If you didn’t say it, wouldn’t you just say ‘I didn’t say it’?”

Anthony Albanese was pressed on the issue on Sunrise. Picture: Channel 7

Today host Karl Stefanovic also asked Mr Albanese: “You were called a liar? How does that sit with you?”

The Labor leader shrugged it off: “I’m focused on the issue, Karl.

“It was an emotional day for people and I get that on what is an emotional issue. Because women were saying yesterday, enough is enough.”

Earlier on Monday morning, federal government minister Tanya Plibersek and Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce joined Barr on the program to discuss the weekend’s protests, which drew tens of thousands of people.

Ms Plibersek, whose daughter has become a prominent advocate for victims of domestic violence, said “we all need to do better” in fixing the problem.

She said governments, police and the judicial system could make changes but efforts were also being undermined in online spaces via the spread of “violent misogyny”.

“There’s this smorgasbord of violent misogyny that’s being fed to, particularly, adolescent boys,” she said.

“And so, society is trying to fix it on the one hand and, on the other hand, we have the exact opposite force happening, working against us trying to improve things.

“So we need to … we need to look at what governments are doing, what police are doing, what courts are doing, what emergency services are doing, but we also need to look at what is happening particularly to young men online that is supporting these misogynist attitudes.”

Tanya Plibersek, Nat Barr and Barnaby Joyce on Sunrise today.

Barr then threw to Mr Joyce, saying men needed to step up in stopping the violence.

“There’s anti-women stuff online, and also porn at a very young age being pushed to our young people online,” she said.

“Barnaby, we also need these rallies and these cries not to just be all the women saying, ‘help us’.

“We need men, don’t we, to get in on this conversation.”

Mr Joyce said the current state of violence in the community was “atrocious”, and agreed that exposure to porn from a young age could warp boy’s perceptions of relationship with women.

“Well, we can try and remove that, and we should,” he said.

“But we should also have parents who make absolutely certain that they do the frontline policing on this.”

People gather at the National Rally Against Violence event in Hobart. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

He went on to say that it was important “not to presume that every boy is going to grow up to be a criminal”.

“You have to say, well, let’s look at the total picture here and the formation of the family is absolutely vital in that,” Mr Joyce said.

Ms Plibersek said it was a problem for women that they “don’t know who those men are” who have violent tendencies.

“That’s the problem,” she said. “Until you’re in a relationship, until you know them well, so you don’t know who they are.”

“Of course not every man is violent. Most men would be horrified at that. But we don’t know who they are until we are in relationships with them.”

Mr Joyce replied: “I agree with you, Tanya.

“There are so many people who present so well and then you look into their history and you find out an AVO or find out they’re not what they pretend to be. Agree with you.”