Malcolm Turnbull Says “Real Men Don’t Hit Women” In First Interview As PM

Today spoke to new PM Malcolm Turnbull for the first time since his ascent to the highest office in Australia this morning, during which he absolutely slammed domestic violence and how it has been tackled by previous governments. *cough*

Speaking this morning, he said:

“The issue of domestic violence, or family violence, as it’s often called, which is just violence against women, as the way I prefer to describe it, is an enormous one.

“It has been overlooked to some extent, it has been ignored for far too long, and we must have zero tolerance for it. I think a growing level of awareness is vital. Real men don’t hit women, and we’ve got to be very determined to eradicate it.”

While yes, it is absolutely a good thing that the PM used his first interview to bring up domestic and family violence (which, FYI, is not limited to men hitting women; it includes violence against children, violence against men by women, and violence in same-sex couples), Turnbull pointing the finger at a lack of awareness ignores the far more pressing issue of a lack of funding to front line services.

He also seems to have casually forgotten that most of the 2015 budget dedicated to tackling domestic violence was put towards the National Awareness Campaign to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children, which amounted to $16.7 million over three years in federal funding, and matched by state and territory funding to a combined total of $30 million.

“This is highly disappointing given that we know that crucial services are still unable to meet current demands,” The Conversation wrote in May. “For example, it was recently reported that, in 2014, 1800RESPECT – the national 24/7 crisis line for sexual assault, domestic and family violence – responded to 54,853 contacts but left 18,631 unanswered. This means that one-quarter of contacts made to that service were not responded to when someone called for help.”

Earlier this year, Waleed Aly ripped apart the 2015 budget allocated to tackle domestic violence, pointing out that it was just 1/20th of what Australia will spend in 2015 on the National School Chaplaincy program.

If you are at risk of domestic violence, family violence, or sexual assault, call 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732.

Edit: Oops, we done goofed. The original story was posted with an image from Turnbull’s Sunrise interview, when actually the story was from Today’s. Malcolm’s a busy boy, and we need coffee.

Image: Today.