Anthony Albanese is booed during fiery speech at violence against women rally - ... trends now
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was booed while delivering a fiery speech at a rally in Canberra protesting violence against women.
Organiser Sarah Williamns later slammed Mr Albanese on social media, accusing him of entitlement in a scathing post.
'Albanese abusing his power by aggressively stating when I asked the crowd if we should let him speak, "I'm the prime minister of this country, I run this country" demonstrated his entitlement,' she wrote.
Video of the event shows Ms Williams telling Mr Albanese 'that's a lie, that's a flat-out lie' after he claimed he had earlier requested to speak.
'For him to not only demand he speak because he was being heckled, but lie was disgraceful,' she wrote later.
'He demonstrated today what entitlement looks like. A man with power trying to diminish a vulnerable young woman.'
In his speech Mr Albanese demanded widespread change to all levels of Australian society and asked protesters to hold him 'accountable' for his government's actions.
At times with jeers and interruptions, Mr Albanese said Australia needed to change its 'culture', 'attitudes' and 'legal system' to end the scourge of violence against women that has already allegedly claimed the lives of 26 women this year.
'We're here today to demand that governments of all levels, must do better, including my own, and every state and territory government,' he told the large crowd.
Anthony Albanese delivered a fiery speech at a rally in Canberra (pictured), on Sunday and said Australia needed to change its culture and attitudes to end violence against women
Crowds gathered at Parliament House (pictured) to take part in the rally as the Prime Minister described violence against women as a 'national crisis'
'We're here as well to say that society, and Australia, must do better.
'We need to change the culture, we need to change attitudes, we need to change the legal system.
'We need to change the approach by all governments because it is not enough to support victims, we need to focus on the perpetrators and focus on prevention.'
Mr Albanese suggested he had asked the rally organisers for permission to speak but had been knocked back.
'We did ask to speak, myself and (Finance minister) Katy (Gallagher) and we were told that's not possible,' he said.
'And that's fine, we respect the organisers' right to do that.'
Ms Williams interjected: 'That's a lie'.
Earlier, the rally organiser commenced the demonstration by sharing her own experiences of family and domestic violence, as well as homelessness.
In an awkward and tense exchange, Ms Williams then demanded the politicians present commit to the organisation's demands, and declare that the recent spate of murders of women by men was a national emergency.
However, the Labor ministers appeared non-responsive and confused, initially refusing to front the rally, a move which brought boos and heckling from the audience.
'Why are you even here?' one protester yelled from the crowd.
'Shame on you,' shouted another.
Mr Albanese was booed and heckled by some of the crowd during his speech
The Prime Minister acknowledged that all levels of government need to address domestic violence differently
The message was loud and clear at rallies across Australia over the weekend. Pictured is the Canberra rally on Sunday
Mr Albanese spoke about some of the actions his government had taken to address the problem, including the introduction of domestic violence payments.
A protester interrupted, saying 'it's not enough'.
The prime minister replied, 'I agree it's not enough. I said that. We need to do more.'
Even as his words were punctuated with booing and jeering from the crowd, Mr Albanese soldiered on through his address, committing that the government he led would redouble its efforts to
