Police ministers meet on gendered violence prevention

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus will host state and territory police ministers in Canberra for talks, which will focus on efforts to stamp out gendered violence.

Greater data sharing between jurisdictions about high-risk or serial perpetrators is set to be on the agenda for the meeting, as well as potential reform to bail laws.

The meeting of ministers comes after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese held an emergency national cabinet discussion with state and territory leaders, following an increase in the number of women killed.

Mr Albanese said co-operation between the jurisdictions on a range of issues would be essential in dealing with the scourge.

"States and territories will all come together at the Attorney-General's meeting to talk about the law, justice system, bail laws, those matters that are the primary responsibility of states and territories," he told Seven's Sunrise program on Friday.

National cabinet also signed off on a plan that will give women escaping violence a $5000 payment.

The program will be a permanent extension of a previous trial set up under the Morrison government.

But the government has come under fire for not further funding frontline services, with reports women fleeing violence are sleeping in cars.

Mr Albanese said the payments were only the start of measures aiming at addressing violence against women.

"We have allocated funding through our Housing Australia Future Fund for emergency accommodation for women and children escaping domestic violence," he said.

"I will be in discussions with the states and territories as well about what more can be done.

"We know that the circumstances where a woman escaping a violent situation has to sleep in her car or surf on the couch of a friend .... is unacceptable in 2024. We need to do better, there's no question about that."

While national cabinet also agreed to undertake a trial of age verification methods online to stop children accessing violent content, experts have said such a plan would not work.

The government has said it would move ahead with an age verification trial online to limit access to graphic material such as pornography to prevent access for minors.

"The small technical detail is, it doesn't work," Vanessa Teague said.

The cryptographer from the Australian National University pointed to a court case against X, formerly Twitter, where the eSafety commissioner is trying to get the social media platform to take down graphic video of a stabbing globally.

X has argued the Australian authority doesn't have the jurisdiction to enforce what its users in other countries see.

It's unlikely porn sites would pander to an Australian request to mandate age verification technology, Dr Teague said.

"It's focused on asking the porn sites all over the world to implement a nice little request from Australian law enforcement," she said.

"You know, 'could you please not let these people see your stuff'."

Such verification could be easily bypassed with simple software, Dr Teague said.

"All that's going to happen is more people learn to use a VPN," she said, referring to virtual private networks that disguise the location or identity of the user.

"Everyone is really upset, everyone is really angry, everyone wants the government to do something.

"And that's exactly when everyone gets sucked into scams. It sounds nice but it just doesn't work."

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)

Lifeline 13 11 14

Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 (for people aged 5 to 25)

Australian Associated Press