E&OE TRANSCRIPT
PETER KHALIL MP, MEMBER FOR WILLS: Thanks everyone, I’m Peter Khalil MP, Member for Wills. Today I’m joined by Amanda Rishworth, Claudia Johnson, Assistant Principal here at Brunswick Secondary College and Hunter Johnson, the CEO of The Man Cave and these wonderful young leaders here, these young men - I'm going to get this right - Jethro, Campbell, Harry, and Marco, who have demonstrated some amazing leadership in the way that they role model to younger kids and teach respectful relationships. They're doing a terrific job, as is the school. So it's great to have the Minister here to hear about the work that the Man Cave is doing, and the Brunswick Secondary College are doing, and I want to hand over now to Minister Amanda Rishworth. Welcome to Wills, thanks for coming.
AMANDA RISHWORTH, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: Thank you. Well, look, it's really wonderful to be here, and I'd like to firstly acknowledge the advocacy that Peter Khalil does do, particularly about getting the right supports for adolescent men and boys. I'd also like to thank Hunter from The Man Cave and Claudia from Brunswick Secondary College for having us here today. We are announcing today the three providers that will be delivering our Healthy Mate program. The three providers are the Jesuit Social Services, the Foundation for Positive Masculinity and also The Man Cave. These three organisations will be delivering, in-person conversation and connection with young men, talking about what it means to be a young man: what some of the challenges they're facing, how can they develop positive relationships with their peers, how can they develop positive relationships with their wider community. We know that there are many influences out there. Some role models are great, and it was wonderful to speak with these young men about some of those really good role models. But we know that many young men are being influenced by not-so-good role models. Influencers like Andrew Tate, and other online influencers that are really promoting really rigid, negative, aggressive, and violent portrayals of what it is to be a man. And so it's really important that we get in and have these conversations with young men, and I'd like to thank The Man Cave for the proposal they put in. Their work really goes to actually having deep conversations, making sure that there are really healthy role models for young men to help them be able to realise that talking about your emotions is really important. We were talking before just about the fact that everyone feels sad from time to time, and that it's not a sign of weakness for young men to talk about being sad. So this is what this program is doing, is making sure that we can work with young men and boys to make sure that we are developing healthy men into the future. This is, of course, really important for those young men as individuals, but really important as we tackle gender-based violence and this has been a critical area that not only was highlighted in the rapid review, but in our National Plan, that we must engage and work with young men and boys into the future. So I'm really pleased to hand over to Hunter now from The Man Cave, that is going to be one of the three organisations that will be delivering this important program.
HUNTER JOHNSON: Thank you, Minister. And thank you Peter, great to see you again. Thank you, Claudia as well. Amazing to be at Brunswick Secondary College, which is local for us. We really focus on boys' strengths rather than their deficits. It is absolutely an inflection point for masculinity right now, it's a really confusing time for many young men, but we're surrounded by four, incredible, positive role models here today. The funding for us will allow us to scale to the many - to the hundreds of schools that reach out to us that have economic barriers to entry. It allows us to subsidise the program so that we can get it out far and wide, and really, it's focussing on the character development, the social and emotional intelligence, and their relationship skills, the sex education in a way that really meets boys where they're at. It can be, as I said, very confusing, a lot of these messages, but also we work with tens of thousands of boys on the front line every day and I can tell you from a position of hope, there are thousands of young men who want to be allies, both for supporting themselves but their relationships, their communities, too. So just recognise it's such an important time in Australian culture, whether it's men's mental illness, men's suicide prevention or men's violence against women, a lot of the funding traditionally has gone to crisis management, and I fully understand why and I back it, but we're also at a really exciting point with this generational moment where we can invest in the future generation to create a positive future state for masculinity. So this is a real landmark investment, I really back the courage of the Australian Government to do this and we're excited to work alongside the other members of the collective to scale this work into the communities that need it most. So thank you very much and I'll pass over to Claudia.
CLAUDIA JOHNSON: Thanks, Hunter. I'm really grateful to you, Minister Rishworth, and to The Man Cave for including Brunswick Secondary College in this wonderful opportunity. We know that young men need particular support, and they specifically need different ways to receive support. So it just can't be one single program. It needs to be a whole range of things and certainly The Man Cave's program will fit perfectly with what we're doing at the school. The Man Cave, the program's going to benefit our wonderful young men, but it also benefits the young women in our school as well and the community more broadly. So, again, we're really grateful for this partnership and we're excited for where it's going to bring to our school. Thank you.
JOURNALIST: Minister, whereabouts is this program? What parts of the country is it actually rolled out in?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, this is a trial and at the moment we're looking at predominantly rolling it out in New South Wales and Victoria, but very much looking at continuing to see the results and looking at other opportunities which allows us to roll this program out.
JOURNALIST: How long's the trial going to go for?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: The trial is over the next year, and we will hopefully get a good evaluation of the trial. We know already anecdotally this is having a positive influence, even just speaking recently, from speaking to participants in the program, hearing directly the benefits before this trial even began about the Man Cave program. But this will allow greater accessibility and evaluation and then we'll look at where else we can extend it to.
JOURNALIST: What about in areas like the Northern Territory? Just yesterday another woman was killed, this is the seventh woman since July in the Territory. What else needs to be done in areas like that where we don't have access to services like this and enough help for women up there?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: In terms of particularly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, we have a separate action plan that was developed with States and Territories about how we address the disproportionately high rate of violence against Aboriginal women and children. And in particular, we've announced a number of actions, including men's wellness camps. We are currently rolling those out, which provide culturally appropriate healing for men across the country, but there has been a particular focus on the Northern Territory under that program. These aren't run by government. This is run by those with a cultural appropriateness to connect with men. When it comes to adolescent boys who have experienced violence, that's another challenge because we know that trauma, in particular, can have an impact. We've recently announced the roll out of a number of programs to support those adolescent boys who have experienced family domestic violence themselves and that is about stopping the cycle, the generational cycle of violence. So this program is, in itself, is not the only program. In fact, under our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan, there's $263 million. When it comes to support in the Northern Territory, we have put close to $180 million extra into support within the Northern Territory.
JOURNALIST: Something's obviously not working up there, though?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, I would make the point about the National Plan. The National Plan is about a plan to change generations. We know that, for example, this program is about changing the attitudes and stereotypes that come along with a rigid masculinity that can lead to violence. So this is about making sure that we have adolescent boys that grow up healthy. That obviously, to see the benefits when it comes to violence, will take some time. I just visited, just then, new safe places accommodation here in Victoria, but equally we're rolling them out across the country. This is building crisis accommodation as well. So we need to make sure that we're investing in prevention, early intervention, crisis response and healing and recovery. We've invested as a Government, in the last two and a half years, an extra $3.4 billion. Obviously we're rolling this out to get it on the ground. But some of this is about generational change, it is about culture change in Australia, and I would invite everyone to work with all levels of government, and I will remind that all levels of government have signed up to this National Plan, along with how we create change in our broader community if we're going to achieve our goal.
JOURNALIST: How important is cracking down on social media? Obviously a lot of young people use TikTok and things like that, a lot of misinformation, a lot of values posted on TikTok. How important is cracking down on that for young kids?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Look, obviously what we know is that social media in particular feeds up information that causes a stir and what that can mean is that there is a lot of quite aggressive footage on there. There can often be views that condone violence against women, encourage violence against women, and if you're at a particularly young age, then this could be quite influential. We were just talking before about the importance of role models at the home, and it was really lovely to hear some of the young men here talking about what an important role model their father was in particular. But we also need to acknowledge that young people are being really bombarded by some really very toxic attitudes and viewpoints on social media. So it is important that we do crack down on social media and that is why our government's committed to having an age limit on social media in legislation introduced by the end of the year.
JOURNALIST: Can I ask Hunter a quick question about the program? In terms of how you're going to see how effective it is in schools, how are you actually going to look at that data?
HUNTER JOHNSON: Sure, so we work with schools based on their socioeconomic status, which is basically called an ICSEA status. So we will charge a school based on how high or affluent or disadvantaged they may be. We've also got an in-house impact evaluation team that monitors the short, long-term behavioural change and the attitudinal change, and we partner with educational institutions like universities to measure the effectiveness.
JOURNALIST: Just a couple of questions. Obviously the Prime Minister's just purchased that $4.3 million home. Do you think he's shown a lack of judgment by purchasing this multi-million dollar property during a cost-of-living crisis?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: I don't accept that. The purchase of this house is really a matter for the Prime Minister and his fiancé. And he won't be the first person or the last person, politician or other person, to buy a property. But I think what's important is you need to look at the actions that this Government has taken when it comes to cost of living. Actions like our immediate support for a 45 per cent increase in Commonwealth Rent Assistance, whether it's our $32 billion in investment, whether that's in social and affordable housing, whether that's in our rent-to-buy plan, whether that is in our home equity scheme that supports people become homeowners. I mean, really, the Greens and the Liberal Party need to front up and explain why they are standing in the way. So we've got to judge us by the actions, our cheaper medicines, these are the things that our government is taking action on and are critical to support people with cost-of-living pressures.
JOURNALIST: A recent survey that was released just last week said around 80 per cent of people believed that young people aren't going to be able to buy a new home without the help of a family member and that they're unlikely to ever be able to purchase a new home. Does this indicate that the public doesn't believe your government is doing enough to help first homebuyers?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Firstly, I would say that it is a challenge, of course, to get more supply online. We've had inaction by the previous Federal Government, the Liberal Government that did nothing when it came to housing supply in this country. So from the very beginning, we've been delivering things like the Housing Australia Future Fund, but also this is where our help-to-buy scheme is so important. It is providing the opportunity for 40,000 Australians to have a share - to be part of a shared equity scheme to help them own their first home. And so it is quite appalling that the Liberal Party and the Greens are standing in the way of this legislation. So I'm not surprised that Australians are feeling pretty disappointed because this legislation has been stalled in the Senate.
JOURNALIST: Is Labor divided on its housing tax policy?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: No.
JOURNALIST: Would you like to see any change to negative gearing arrangements?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: That is not part of our housing policy. As I said, we've committed to $32 billion extra funding when it comes to our housing policies and that includes things like the 45 per cent in Commonwealth Rent Assistance, which is flowing to people now. But it also includes increasing supply across the domains of social and affordable housing. We know that social housing has been ignored for so many years and our housing Australia Future Fund is delivering that. Our housing funding to States and Territories is delivering on that. But, of course, in addition to that, private rental and, of course, looking at home ownership. We are looking right across the board to support people. I tell you one thing that won't help the cost of housing and that is the Liberal Party, A, standing in the way with the Greens blocking of our bill, but also, their plans that means that people have to dig into their retirement savings and to own a house. That will only ensure that more people rely on the pension and push up house prices. So it's only Labor with a credible plan to address housing shortages in this country.
JOURNALIST: Will you rule out making any changes to the housing tax mix before the next election?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, look, as the Prime Minister, Housing Minister, Treasurer said, that is not part of our plan. We have put our plans forward and we will keep talking about how important our homes for Australia plan is, that's delivering houses now. I just recently, just before, went out to see the capital build that will happen for crisis accommodation for women and children fleeing domestic and family violence. Our funding is allowing for over 100 safe places for women and children leaving violent circumstances. That wouldn't have been able to be done without the investment from the Commonwealth, a capital investment, to actually build those places. Thank you.