Leaders weigh plan to track domestic violence offenders

Violent offenders will be tracked with electronic devices to alert police to their location and protect women from potential attacks under a South Australian scheme that will be on the agenda at a national cabinet meeting to decide new measures to curb male violence.

The scheme, which came into force on Tuesday night, will be considered by federal and state leaders at a meeting on Wednesday that will also canvass stricter bail laws and greater funding for support services for women and children.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan and SA Premier Peter Malinauskas at a national cabinet meeting last year.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has warned about the way boys and men are gaining access to violent and misogynistic content online, raising the prospect of new measures amid a growing debate about stricter age tests for young people on social media apps.

In November, the federal government said the age verification systems were “immature” and carried significant risks that could make it hard to put them in place, but this week it said it was working on a pilot scheme for an age-assurance mechanism that could be applied to online porn.

Albanese will hold a virtual meeting with premiers and chief ministers on Wednesday morning to consider a federal discussion paper on new measures as well as a paper from SA Premier Peter Malinauskas on state action to protect women.

Domestic, family and sexual violence commissioner Micaela Cronin, who will address the leaders, said the national plan on violence against women needed to be constantly reviewed and adapted.

“All governments across this country – Commonwealth, state and territories – need to use the levers that they have in their power. This is a crisis,” said Cronin, who started in the newly created role in 2022.

New data from the Australian Institute of Criminology shows that 34 women were killed by an intimate partner in 2022-23, up from 26 the year before. In the same period, four men were killed by their partners.

The number of women killed in violent circumstances so far this calendar year rose to 28 on Monday, according to Facebook group Counting Dead Women, when a West Australian man is alleged to have murdered his mother.

Days after protesters marched in capital cities to demand faster action to protect women, the national cabinet meeting will hear from Malinauskas on the measures already under way in the states, including the tracking scheme, which passed the South Australian parliament on Tuesday night.

The new system will authorise police to fit an electronic device to an offender who breaches a domestic violence intervention order by committing a violent act or threatening to do so.

If the offender is freed on bail, the device would be mandatory and would be combined with geographic bail conditions so the tracking technology could alert authorities if the offender breached the conditions.

The South Australian government says the scheme will allow additional restrictions to be programmed into the monitoring device, such as a ban on approaching the protected person’s home or workplace.

Albanese said on Tuesday he wanted the national cabinet meeting to hear from Malinauskas about state actions, as well as learning from Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan about the responses to Victoria’s royal commission into family violence.

“We need to acknowledge that this is an issue which is long term, does require attitudinal change, requires a whole range of measures,” he said.

“But we also need practical, immediate measures and responses.”

While state leaders are promising action on bail laws, the federal government is looking at online safety because of the concern that boys and men are exposed to more violent and misogynistic content on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and other services.

“Now that is something that is a role for government, but it’s also a role for public discourse. I think we need to have a real discussion about the impact,” Albanese said.

When asked on Tuesday whether it was viable to block content for people aged under 18, Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the digital platforms needed to do more to enforce their age restrictions.

“I have been working closely with the eSafety commissioner [Julie Inman Grant] on having a pilot in place to have some sort of age-assurance mechanisms,” she told ABC Radio.

Rowland was not so certain about the concept last November, when she said: “The systems that currently exist for age verification are immature and also carry significant risks in terms of privacy and their ability to be implemented overall.”

Coalition communications spokesman David Coleman has been calling for several months for the federal government to impose age verification rules on digital platforms.

Crossbench MPs backed policy experts who called on Monday for Albanese to target violent online porn, misogynistic social media influencers and problem gambling in his next responses to the widespread violence against women.

More immediately, the independent MPs requested a sentencing review that would create more accountability for perpetrators in the justice system, as well as government-funded independent legal representation for women.

“We also need sustainable, consistent, and certain investment in frontline services,” the group of 11 lower house MPs wrote to Albanese on Tuesday. The women’s support services have identified insecure and short-term funding as a barrier to their work and say longer-term contracts would give them more security.

Several health, community and Aboriginal organisations added to calls for alcohol harm- reduction measures to be part of the discussions, while other advocacy groups said safe housing options for women must be on the agenda.

The crossbench MPs said Albanese must also force states to “break the logjam” on recruiting 500 frontline domestic violence support workers, which the Commonwealth government had funded in 2022-23 based on an election promise.

Despite plans for 200 workers to be employed each year, only 17 had started work as of March this year. The government did not provide updated figures when asked this week.

If you or someone you know is affected by sexual assault, domestic or family violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732.

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