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Women fleeing abusive relationships will be eligible for up to $5,000 in financial support, under a permanent program announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

National Cabinet met today, specifically to discuss the issue of violence against women. 

A series of recent incidents prompted calls for an urgent, national response and sparked rallies across the country over the weekend. 

The PM said $925.2 million would be committed over five years to establish the ‘Leaving Violence Program’, which would also offer referral services, risk assessments and safety planning. 

“The heartbreaking reality is that there is no overnight solution to violence against women and children,” said Albanese. 

The program is part of the coming federal budget and will commence in mid-2025, making permanent a trial under the ‘Escaping Violence Program’, which has seen payments made to more than 45,000 people since 2021. 

As part of the reforms, the Federal Government has expedited a move to criminalise doxxing, the act of distributing the personal information of another person, including their full name, contact details or address, on the internet without their express consent. 

“The government will also bring forward [this] legislation in early August,” Albanese said. 

New laws, banning the creation and distribution of deepfake pornography and other explicit material produced using artificial intelligence, will also be introduced. 

In addition to the laws, the Government will unveil a new Stop it at the Start campaign, to commence in June and run until May 2025. 

“This new phase will include counter influencing campaigns in online spaces where violent and misogynistic content thrives to directly challenge the material in the spaces that it’s being viewed,” Albanese said. 

“The government’s undertaking long overdue classification reforms with states and territories which will examine options to reduce exposure to violent pornography, informed by engagement with experts and best available evidence.” 

“We will be seeking cooperation wherever we can, but we need to take action and the online players need to understand exactly what the consequences are of a free-for-all online.” 

The Prime Minister was also asked about bail laws and electronic monitoring. 

“What I heard from the Premiers and Chief Ministers was a commitment to best practice, to examine what works,” said Albanese. 

Asked about the possibility of a national register for DV offenders, the Prime Minister said data sharing was on the agenda and people were keen to progress it. 

“We did speak about shared data as well, that’s one of the things we will come back to,” he said. 

“We were conscious of the fact that our society is more mobile that it has ever been.” 

Meanwhile, the NSW Government has launched an advertising campaign to raise public awareness of coercive control, ahead of it being criminalised in current or former intimate partner relationships from 1 July. 

Deputy Premier Prue Car said coercive control was an “insidious and damaging form of domestic violence”. 

“This campaign is vital in ensuring the broader public know what coercive control looks like, and perpetrators know what they are doing is wrong,” she said.