Australia’s Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese has announced a five-year $925m investment to help people escape domestic violence and a suite of initiatives to combat male extremist views about women online.
“The government will invest $925 million over five years, it will be included in the budget in two weeks’ time, to permanently establish the Leaving Program,” Albanese said in a press conference.
“Those eligible will be able to access up to $5,000 in financial support along with referral services, risk assessments, and safety planning.
Today also, we’re announcing a suite of online measures to help combat toxic male extremist views about women online … We will introduce legislation to ban the creation and distribution of deepfake pornography, sharing sexually explicit material using technology like artificial intelligence will be subject to serious criminal penalties.”
According to The Australian, Albanese said his government would undertake “long overdue reforms” which will review options to reduce exposure of violent pornography.
In addition, an announcement was made that the reporting date of Australia’s online safety laws would be brought forward by a year.
“The government will also bring forward legislation in early August to outlaw the release of private information online with an intent to cause harm, this is known as doxxing,” Albanese added.
“Finally I want to acknowledge the very important work that the Attorney-General is leading to strengthen penalties targeting the creation and non-consensual sexually explicit deepfakes.”
Source: The Australian
