Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has dismissed concerns over his government’s handling of surging domestic violence and murders of women and says a Royal Commission into the issue would do nothing “besides fund lawyers”.

Former Home and Away star Christie Hayes blasted Mr Albanese for his “tone-deaf” and “dismissive” comments made during an interview on her breakfast radio show for Hit 100.9 in Hobart.

“What’s your government doing to make serious change in this country so that we eradicate this violence against women?” Hayes began by asking the Prime Minister during Monday’s pre-recorded exchange.

“Well there’s no place for violence against women in our society, we have $4.4 billion we’re throwing at this,” Mr Albanese responded.

“Every single woman who suffers this fate is one too many. We’re throwing everything at this, but we know the government can’t tackle it alone. It’s up to men to talk to other men about it and our society to say ‘no, this is not acceptable’.”

Hayes, who has previously opened-up about her experience with domestic violence, reminded Mr Albanese that 27 women had been killed so far this year and said he needed to continue talking about the scourge.

The on-air exchange took a very heated turn when the radio host raised The Red Heart Movement’s petition for a Royal Commission into the killing of Australian women and girls, which has received more 90,000 signatures in support.

Mr Albanese responded dismissively: “There’s calls for a royal commission about everything…” but Hayes fired back: “Well, I think deaths of women is pretty paramount. Wouldn’t you say?”

“They are,” Mr Albanese responded.

“But you have to work out what a royal commission is going to do besides fund lawyers,” Mr Albanese said.

The PM’s comments came after a devastating weekend of domestic and family violence offending with a woman in her 60s found dead at a remote home in Tasmania on Friday, in what police believe is an apparent murder-suicide.

Does he want our women to be killed? No. Does he want to do anything about it? No.

A 29-year-old woman was found dead on the same day at a home in Werribee in Melbourne’s south-west, with the body of a 31-year-old man found nearby.

Then, on Tuesday, a 47-year-old man was charged with murder after police discovered the body of a 46-year-old woman and two boys aged 12 and four inside a Sydney home on Monday night.

Since the radio interview, the Prime Minister has been condemned for his remarks, including by Hayes who said Mr Albanese was ‘very tone-deaf and so out of touch’ in a media interview.

“Does he want our women to be killed?,” she said.

“No. Does he want to do anything about it? No.”

Hayes said Albanese’s comments felt especially flippant, given the timing so close to the events over the weekend.

“I was actually shaking,” she said.

“I just thought, ‘Wow, we’ve just had this true tragedy here and it’s not even on his radar’. It should be a fresh wound, and it doesn’t feel like it is whatsoever.

“We’re talking about murder, regular murder of women. Can you imagine if a man was being killed every four days by a woman? I mean, it wouldn’t happen.

“I wondered if he would say something like this in person to a son or a daughter who had lost their mother to violence from a partner or ex-partner.”

Hayes said she accepted that some requests for Royal Commissions might not stack-up, but she didn’t believe there was any argument that could justify not holding one into the deaths of woman and girls from domestic and family violence.

“A crisis of femicide in Australia... I don’t care how much it costs or how much time goes into it,” she said.

“There should be nothing on Earth that we’re not doing to try and get to the bottom of it. If it’s a royal commission, then so be it.

“At least that’s something you could do. Particularly when 90,000 people have signed a petition so far. So don’t just dismiss it like it’s nothing.”