
On Thursday night's episode of Q&A, a mother and her teen daughter asked the panel if Prime Minister Scott Morrison's support for women was 'genuine'.
"In a recent press conference, Scott Morrison said he believes in all the women of Australia. This is despite for months, broadly dismissing or ignoring the allegations of sexual assault and harassment made by women from within the Parliament," the audience member asked.
"My question to the panel is whether we are to believe that Scott Morrison is genuinely committed to this issue or if these are the words of a politician scrambling to find his way out of a messy predicament, largely of his own making?"
Watch: Sam Mostyn and Adam Creighton on Q&A. Post continues below video.
Chief Executive Women President Sam Mostyn said this was a question women across the country were grappling with.
She said there were many things Morrison could do right now to give his words more weight, such as accepting Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins' 55 recommendations following a national inquiry into sexual harassment in the workplace and promoting more women to cabinet roles.
"Do you believe him though? That he gets it?" host Hamish Macdonald interrupted.
"I think he's got it politically. This has been a week where everything has come together," Mostyn replied.
"That's a different thing. Do you think he fundamentally gets this issue?"
"I think he gets it now," she said.
"I think what was the most disturbing thing for the prime minister were those gross acts by young men inside Parliament House that said they completely disrespected women who chose to be MPs. At that point, I think the prime minister really did get it, because it was such an affront.
"But for women, I'm sure for the women in the audience and for those watching tonight, we're so used to these behaviours that we've been 'getting it' for a very, very long time."
March 4 Justice protestors outside Parliament House on March 15, 2021 in Canberra, Australia. Image: Getty.
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