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The organiser of a rally against gendered violence says the Prime Minister failed to reach out to her after he took over the stage and accused her of denying him the opportunity to speak.
Anthony Albanese attended the No More rally in Canberra yesterday where he claimed that he and the Minister for Women, Katy Gallagher, had asked to speak but were told by the organisers "that wasn't possible".
Footage of the speech shows organiser Sarah Williams respond "that's a lie. That's a full out lie", before becoming visibly distressed.
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Williams said the situation has left her traumatised and she nor fellow organisers have heard from the PM since the incident.
"He has not reached out. Very disappointing," she told 9news.com.au.
She said Albanese did not stay around to listen to other speakers and left immediately after his speech.
"He didn't check in on me or anyone else," she said.
Williams claims Albanese, Gallagher and MP Amanda Rishworth had attempted to "change the narrative" around the atmosphere at the rally through social media posts.
"He was invited to speak from me, because I wanted him to speak if he was going to commit to one of our demands," she told 2GBs Ben Fordham.
https://omny.fm/shows/ben-fordham-full-show/i-run-this-country-pm-accused-of-making-extraordin/embed
"But he told the whole of Australia that he asked to speak and his offices, and Katy Gallaghers' said that it would be too late of notice for him to speak."
Williams said when she found out Albanese was attending the rally, they specifically made it very clear they didn't want to speak but walk in solidarity.
"So when he got up there you could see my reaction was …. 'what in the world'," she said.
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Williams said she had asked Albanese and Gallagher to commit to five key demands but they were unable to reach an agreement.
She said that's when the audience began getting upset, yelling out "they were asking why are you here then?"
"I said to the audience 'do we want him to speak?' I wanted the audience to choose, not him," she said.
"And whilst I was saying that, he said behind me, which many people heard: 'I'm the Prime Minister I run this country'."
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"If he was denied the opportunity…. why would you get up there and take over and make it your own agenda"
In response to the incident, Albanese told Today it was an "emotional day" but insisted he remained "focused on the issue" of combatting domestic violence.
"It was an emotional day for people and I get that, on what is an emotional issue. Because women were saying yesterday, enough is enough," he said.
Albanese said he'll be discussing what governments can do to combat domestic violence when national cabinet reconvenes on Wednesday.
"Clearly governments need to do more, but as a society as well," he said.
"We need to acknowledge that we need to change behaviour. We need to change attitudes. We need to change culture, because it is completely unacceptable."
Williams told 2GB she was disappointed that neither her nor other rally organisers have been invited to attend.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
