LIVE

Tue 22 Apr

Australia Institute Live: Day 25 of the 2025 election campaign. As it happened.

Amy Remeikis – Chief Political Analyst

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Key posts

The Day's News

07.41 AEST

What about the national plan as it stands? Is there a 25% reduction in women victims of intimate partner homicide?

Gallagher:

Well, that is the overall aim of the National Plan – one is to see the rates fall, the homicide rates fall. But also that we end violence against women and children in a generation. That is what all governments around Australia have signed up to.

And we, of course, we want to see less women murder. It breaks my heart and I know so many others around the country when we go online or open a newspaper and see yet another report of a woman who has lost her life to violence – often from an intimate partner or former partner. So yes, we want to see that continue to fall and we absolutely will do everything that we can to make sure that we are responding – not just through resources for the police, new ways of assessing high-risk perpetrators, but also making sure that women have the supports that they need if they need to leave a violent relationship.

And when they do that, that they are protected.

07.40 AEST

So what exactly does that mean? What would a second term Albanese government do?

Katy Gallagher:

Well, it’s about bringing all of our policies together for a focus on women.

And this is, I think, something that separates us from the Coalition. I mean, we have funded more money into front-line services, more money into community legal services so that they actually have continuity of funding.

But it’s also making sure that our housing policy is delivering house for women. That our wages policy is making sure that women are earning more.

That our health policy is dealing with all of the barriers to healthcare that women face. Because all of these are interconnected, and if we can make sure that women are able to live healthy lives and work in good jobs and earn good incomes and have a home over their head, then that also impacts on the level – you know, their own safety and their own independence.

So, for us, this is a whole of government effort. But you’ll expect that we would have more to say about the next steps that we think we can take that will change things for women and keep them safer in our community.

07.38 AEST

Sherele Moody, who runs the Red Heart Campaign, a memorial to women and children lost to violence in Australia, as well as Australian Femicide Watch, reports 22 women and five children have been killed in Australia in 2025. In 2024, 103 women and 16 children were killed.

Katy Gallagher is the minister for women, and is asked about the lack of focus on domestic and family violence in this campaign, despite the deaths of at least three women.

Gallagher:

Well, I think that for me, it’s a big feature of all of the work that I do and all of the work that the Labor Government has done. But I am giving a speech today and we are launching Labor’s Women’s Policy of which you would expect a large part of that will have a focus on women’s safety. And I mean, it remains the biggest barrier to gender equality in this country is the number of women who are murdered or beaten up or hospitalised or traumatised from men’s violence against women. And you know, we’ve lent into this this term.

We’re going to continue in a second term to make sure that we can do everything we can to change that. But it is complex and it requires a whole of community effort.

This isn’t something that the Government can solve on its own, although we are absolutely committed to continuing to drive for change and to make sure that women and girls that come after me and you don’t live in a world where they fear for their safety.

07.22 AEST

Will Anthony Albanese go to the Pope’s funeral?

Katy Gallagher:

Look, I think that those arrangements obviously will be worked out. I mean, the immediate response has been to pause and to pay respect to the passing of Pope Francis. But those, as you would expect, those arrangements will be made and it is appropriate that an Australian representative attend. But that will be, I guess, decisions down the track a little later today.

07.20 AEST

Anthony Albanese is Catholic and yesterday, after learning of the death of the Pope, he went to St Patrick’s Cathedral to pay his respects and speak with other mourners.

Katy Gallagher told ABC News Breakfast this morning:

I had the opportunity to speak with the PM last night. And as you say, he was deeply affected by the Pope’s passing. He attended the Cathedral last night after making some comments to the media, and he is attending mass as we speak.

You know, as someone who was born as a Catholic and raised and went to school with a Catholic school, it’s been a deep part of his upbringing. So as you would expect, he’s affected just like many millions of others are. Look, today, his plans have change. He won’t be doing the events that he had originally planned. But some events will go on, but obviously, it will be, I think, toned down, I guess, and respectful of the fact that we have lost a significant world leader overnight.

07.15 AEST

Good morning

Hello and welcome back to Australia Institute Live. A bit has happened since we last came together on Friday. The Pope died, which will overshadow the campaign in what was already a week bookended by public holidays – and yes, the campaign continues, but people pay a lot less attention to it, which means the campaigns tend to pull back on the pace a little.

A truck branded with signage for Liberal Greenway candidate Rattan Virk crashed into a pre-polling centre in Sydney’s north-west which makes for some delicious symbolism for the Coalition’s campaign.

Newspoll continues to show the Coalition vote going backwards – Peter Dutton has fallen back on old favourites, like crime is stopping Victorians from going out – and Anthony Albanese and the Labor campaign have largely continued to coast.

We’ll cover all the day’s events, with some fact checks where necessary, and answering your questions as the day goes on. Coffee number two is on the stove (I drink Greek coffee for those who were asking) and there is probably going to be a sneaky easter egg involved in breakfast this morning.

Ready? Let’s get into it.

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