Domestic, family and sexual violence (DFSV) commissioner Micaela Cronin says Australians are not scared enough of “manosphere” content drawing young Australian men into radical, violent and misogynistic views.

As Cronin enters the final 12 months of her five-year term as the first DFSV commissioner, she is particularly concerned by the rate of young people perpetrating sexual violence against one another. She said that while there were a number of factors contributing to the problem, including an increase in violence against children who then go on to replicate the behaviour, the internet is partly to blame.

Young men are routinely being fed male-supremacist content on social media, and it appears to be affecting their behaviour in the real world. Studies from Monash University and the University of Adelaide have described a rise in sustained, sexist behaviour of boys in school, which teachers link to an increased exposure to extreme, anti-women content. Almost a quarter of gen Z men believed the movement for women’s equality should be violently resisted, with researchers finding that content that is misogynistic and endorses violence against women is the most likely influence on extremist attitudes in Australia.

Cronin is urging state and federal governments to take more action to prevent misogynistic influencers online from undermining decades of work to end violence against women and children. One prevention measure the commissioner endorses is the federal government’s digital duty of care, which she said could help subdue some radical anti-women content online. But Cronin said there were still more federal and state governments needed to do, such as implement the hundreds of recommendations from previous reviews, royal commissions and inquiries into violence against women and children; These recommendations include cutting off late-night alcohol deliveries earlier in the evening, funding justice-system navigators to support those going through the courts for sexual-violence matters and investing more in frontline services.

Australian prime minister Albanese has told UK’s PM Andy Burnham he is looking at changing rules for British backpackers in Australia, after an increase in the number of travellers visiting popular hotspots such as Sydney.

Backpackers had previously been required to do about three months of regional work as part of visa conditions to help with the country’s work shortages in some occupations. But under the free trade agreement signed under Boris Johnson, Britons do not have to undertake the rural work that many other nationalities do as a condition of their visas. It also extended the maximum period for the visa to three years and the age limit to 35.

Albanese, who met Burnham on Monday evening at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) in the Caribbean, told reporters he wanted to discuss changing the agreement between the UK and Australia that removes a regional work requirement for British travellers. The Australian government has said the changes have led to traveller numbers more than doubling, from 40,000 two years ago to 87,000 last year, the majority concentrated in Sydney and beachside suburbs. The easing of visa restrictions also applies to Australians coming to the UK but fewer than 10,000 came last year.

Albanese told the Australian parliament that the numbers of Britons arriving at a small destination was putting pressure on the local workforce. Burnham confirmed to reporters that he was meeting Albanese but declined to comment on any potential changes.

A New South Wales local council has refused to show a world-renowned artwork about children killed in Gaza after asking organisers to investigate hiring “armed guards” to counter the risk of “community conflict” over the mural.

The organisers, Shoalhaven Friends of Palestine, were aiming to show the Wall of Tears installation by American artist Phil Buehler at the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery in Nowra on Tuesday, following the work being exhibited around Australia, including on the front lawns of Parliament House in Canberra in September. The massive artwork pays homage to the 18,457 children killed in Gaza between 7 October 2023 and 19 July 2025 and was first shown in New York on 29 January to coincide with the second anniversary of the death of Hind Rajab, a five-year-old left to bleed out among the bodies of six family members after their car was targeted by an Israeli tank.

Shoalhaven city council asked the group to “investigate” the use of “armed guards” in a risk assessment seen by Guardian Australia. The perceived risks included “protest, counter-protest, community conflict” and “verbal abuse, intimidation or disruption arising from politically sensitive subject matter”. The group was also asked to reduce the exhibition window from eight days to three days and restrict attendance to RSVPs only in the gallery with “locked doors”, and also to no longer advertise the event due to potential “reputational risk” for the gallery or council due to their decision to host the exhibition.

One of the organizers wrote to the council stating she was “deeply disappointed” by the decision and said the “very suggestion that armed guards might be necessary for an exhibition commemorating dead children is deeply disturbing”. The organizers have now arranged for the work to be installed at Berry Uniting Church on Thursday, while the council has not responded to media about what had triggered the safety concerns.