Hanson slammed for DV comments + Should we ban men from childcare?

**Sacha Barbour Gatt** (0:07)
Hey, Sacha Barbour Gatt with you. Welcome to The Briefing. A fierce debate around men working in early childcare has reignited this past week after more than 100 Australian children were identified as the victims of sexual abuse, allegedly at the hands of a male educator. So is a ban on men working in childcare something we should be seriously considering? Today, I debate the idea with someone who thinks it would do more harm than good.

**Dr. Martyn Mills-Bayne** (0:33)
If we have lots of people dying from car crushes, we don't ban cars. What we do is we put seatbelts in place and we have rules and regulations to support safe driving of cars in the same way that we should be doing that around all educators.

**Sacha Barbour Gatt** (0:46)
That's coming up in the second half of this episode. First, it's time for the headlines with Chris Spyrou on Thursday, the 23rd of July.

**Chris Spyrou** (0:54)
Morning Sacha, Pauline Hanson's comments that domestic violence is a two-way street during a radio interview have come under fire from both sides of politics, as well as anti-DV campaigners who say they are dangerous and insulting. For context, the One Nation leader was asked to call out men who hurt their partners on Brisbane's 4BC after her MP Barnaby Joyce earlier in the day told men to walk out of the house before they lose their temper. Here's what she had to say.

**Pauline Hanson** (1:19)
Well, it is wrong, but it's also a two-way street. But I'm not saying that just men and women can lose their cool as well.
Society is under so much pressure, Gary, than what it used to be. And I think today everyone's sitting on a time bomb because the pressures of cost of living and people having to be able to pay the bills, tension that's going on or if you lose your job or the kids, everyone is under so much pressure.

**Chris Spyrou** (1:51)
She went on to say she believes partners don't communicate enough with each other anymore or talk about their feelings before going on to say this.

**Pauline Hanson** (1:58)
Domestic violence is a scourge. I'm not going to go into detail, but I've been through it myself in my life. And I just feel that if you're not in a house where you feel safe, you feel you don't want to be there, then you shouldn't put up with it. And if these women are getting abused by men out there, then don't put up with it.
That's what I'm playing.

**Sacha Barbour Gatt** (2:24)
In a statement, Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek said everyone experiences pressures in life, but violence is never the answer. Also taking aim at the suggestion women should simply leave, saying it misses the point and dangers.
And from the opposition, Shadow Home Affairs Minister John O'Donniam told the ABC, he understood the point Hanson was trying to make, but that she made it poorly and that language like that can do real harm.

**Chris Spyrou** (2:49)
Hanson's comments also prompted quick backlash from anti-DV campaigners who said women can't just leave. Their movements may be monitored, phones checked, finances controlled and contact limited. Prominent activist Brittany Higgins also commented, accusing the One Nation leader of normalising victim blaming at a time when 38 Australian women have already been lost to femicide this year.

**Sacha Barbour Gatt** (3:09)
I think this is one of the things that keeps happening to Pauline Hanson now that she's getting all this increased media attention. People have always known who she is, she's always made headlines, but she's getting more interviews. People are actually really paying attention to what she's saying when it comes to not only policy decisions and policy announcements, but major issues that affect this country like domestic violence. In July alone, six women and children were killed by men they knew allegedly.
A lot of those are still before the courts, obviously. But this is a very serious issue that's affecting Australians, and I think that she is rightly being held to account for her comments, and that she needs to think really hard about the way she is going to address this in the future, because I think people are expecting a lot of her, especially if she wants to hold a very prominent position in Australian Parliament going forward.

**Chris Spyrou** (3:56)
I think the language choice here is what's really coming under fire. Like Two Way Street is such a poor use, like it's such a terrible use of that phrase. It's really not the phrase that you should be using here. She's long been on the talking point about men being part of this conversation to a men being victims of domestic violence. She has spoken about that in the past, because there is this wave, and it does appeal to her electorate of like, men get forgotten in this conversation now. Campaigners are saying by taking the conversation where Pauline Hanson took the conversation, you're distracting away from the house that's burning, and the house that's burning here is that women are overwhelmingly the victims of this, you know, alleged offending and scourge on society. And by taking the conversation there, you're very much distracting away from the things that we need to be focusing on right now.