Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has snapped back at a journalist about the way he dealt with domestic violence rally organiser Sarah Williams.
Albanese did not agree that he would have responded differently to Williams in hindsight, nor that it was ill-advised to use the phrase “I am the prime minister”.
Rally organiser Sarah Williams looks away as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks at the event calling for an end to violence against women.Credit: AAP
Sky presenter Andrew Clennell asked if the PM could have “handled that interaction a bit better in retrospect”.
Albanese responded: “You have not put what was said beforehand, I was asked to have discussions with people unknown about whether it was appropriate, whether we would be speaking or not.
“I responded to that, I was happy to speak, happy to not speak.”
Clennell responded by asking again if Albanese thought his response to Williams was appropriate, and the prime minister quipped back.
“You can look at it, don’t you work at Sky?” Albanese said. ”Everyone can look at it. This is a serious issue. We are talking about a woman dying at the hands of their partner every four days and I have no interest in this.
“This is not about me, I attended a rally, I was proud to do so. As a national leader, it is appropriate that I do that, and I stand by that … I congratulated, if you look, I congratulated the organisers of the rally.”
Asked if he felt regret that Williams was in tears at the end of the exchange, Albanese said Sexual Violence Commissioner Micaela Cronin had reached out to Williams’ organisation to provide a briefing.
“I don’t want to see anyone in that situation, [or] feel badly about anything, about any circumstances,” he said.
“I wish Sarah well, we have reached out, the commissioner’s reached out to Sarah’s organisation to provide a briefing that will occur. I engage constructively with people.”