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“Gender equality isn’t women versus men or a zero-sum game,” Ged Kearney says.

“It delivers better outcomes for everyone. It’s important that, as we engage with men and boys, we make that really clear.”

But as the assistant minister for the prevention of family violence sets off on a national listening tour with the special envoy for men’s health, Dan Repacholi, they are up against a pervasive and very different conception of how men and women relate, fostered by the loud voices of the manosphere and men’s rights activists.

For decades, those activists have called for Australia to have a minister for men.

Since Repacholi began his role, Victoria has appointed Paul Edbrooke as minister for men and boys. The South Australian government is open to something similar, and opposition parties in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory have appointed shadow ministers responsible for men.

But what the activists want is not what Repacholi and Kearney are promoting.

Simon Copland, an expert in misogyny, extremism and male violence and an honorary fellow at the Australian National University, says those groups are tightly focused on the family courts and the idea that men are discriminated against.

They also consistently claim that women make false rape and domestic violence claims, he says.

The veteran Labor warrior and former MP Graham Perrett was on the family law inquiry instigated by One Nation’s Pauline Hanson in 2020, which was swamped by fringe groups spouting ideas fundamentally hostile to women.

At one point One Nation broadcast a hearing live on Facebook and published unfiltered comments calling witnesses “man haters” and “dirty snakes”.

“It was scary as shit,” Perrett says. “You’d have a rapid-fire on why all women were evil.”

‘Stand against the feminist lobby’

Last year Hanson said changes to the family court were her first priority, that child support was a “cash cow” and that allegations of domestic violence should not be allowed unless previously proven true because of “lies”.

She complained about a “woke” parliament “pushing women’s rights” and said men were “the most oppressed and neglected minority in Australia” on International Women’s Day in 2023.

Copland says any ministers for men will “come under intense pressure from these groups”, which have gained traction through Hanson’s persistent calls for changes to the family court and child custody system, and claims that women make false claims about domestic violence.

One fathers’ rights group has used ChatGPT to draft a template for people to send emails demanding changes to the family court, while another has called on followers to email or call Edbrooke to see if he “has the courage to stand against the feminist lobby”.

Repacholi says when he began in his role two ends of the spectrum quickly made themselves known: “The men that hate women and the women that hate men.”

But Kearney believes the “divisive online voices and harmful stereotypes” can be challenged by a commitment to respect, responsibility and equality.

The government’s Healthy Men Community Conversations project, which starts on Wednesday with a healthy masculinities roundtable, aims to support men and boys to seek help and to encourage positive relationships.

“When we support wellbeing and challenge harmful gender norms everyone wins,” Kearney says.

Asked about lobbying from activist groups, Repacholi says it’s important to listen to everyone but that at the extreme ends you can’t change people’s minds.

Talking to men and boys in a “normal” way and meeting them “where they are” will help cut across the static from other groups, he says.

He also talks about the importance of working alongside Kearney in speaking to men from all generations – young and old.

“The whole idea is to make generational change, to change the scary statistics that are out there,” Repacholi says.

The latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows more than three-quarters of those who died by suicide in 2024 were men. It’s the 11th leading cause of death for men and the 27th for women.

Men’s life expectancy in Australia is 81.1 years – four years lower than women’s.

Boys are falling behind girls in schools, overrepresented in workplace deaths, and more likely to abuse substances including alcohol.

Fears about the real-world effects of social media sites awash with misogyny and toxic ideas about masculinity have also fuelled moves to have dedicated representatives for boys and men.

Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety warns that the manosphere has “amplified aggression, disrespect, violence and harassment among boys and men”.

‘Nefarious, extreme, radicalised communities’

Experts from the Movember Institute of Men’s Health welcome the idea of ministers for men but emphasise the need for data and evidence-based policies.

A research fellow at the institute, Dr Krista Fisher, says building boys’ and men’s resilience can help them navigate the onslaught on social media, where algorithms funnel them into the manosphere and content promoting suicide, self-harm and drug and alcohol abuse.

“We need to identify young men who are most vulnerable to ending up in those more nefarious, extreme, radicalised communities and spaces,” she says.

Michael Wilson, a Movember research fellow and honorary research fellow at the University of Melbourne, points to an enduring and baseless claim used by such groups and repeated by One Nation that up to 21 fathers are dying by suicide every week after interacting with the family court system.

He says suicide is an extremely complex phenomenon that does not have a single cause.

“It’s always a complex balance between someone’s underlying vulnerabilities and the acute stressors that are going on in their life at that time [parenthood],” he says.

“Having said that, in Australia, the leading risk factors for suicide in men are mental illness, separation, divorce, domestic violence – any sort of relationship issue is always up there, and acute substance use.”

Repacholi says often men don’t know where to turn when “things get tough”.

“Too many blokes are dying from things we could prevent, including suicide,” he says.

The men’s rights groups blaming the family court for suicide rates are aggrieved and motivated by anger, Wilson says.

“That distress is very real, no one’s denying that. But the extent to which it is used to lobby policy based on evidence that just simply doesn’t exist is where I have an issue with it.

“[Policies] need to be led by evidence more than ideology.”

• In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978. International helplines can be found at befrienders.org