New figures this week show the number of family and domestic violence offenders rose by 8 per cent last financial year. We also know two in five Australian women have experienced violence since the age of 15.

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Some of my bosses over the years have claimed to find this statistic both horrific and, ah, boring. Yet it still plunges me into anger and sadness. Now it's in my immediate world. I got a text from a mate at some ungodly hour - before 9am - on Saturday: Have you seen the Catalano story?

The story? The ABC's Kristian Silva reported that Antony Catalano, the co-owner and then executive chair of Australian Community Media which owns this newspaper, faces charges of assault, false imprisonment and making threats to kill. He was granted bail on Friday night. Silva was watching the proceedings via video link. The bloke's on leave but this story, from a tip-off, was too big to miss.

Folks are tiptoeing around the relationship of Catalano to the victim. Let me give it to you in his own words. He was "deeply ashamed and humiliated". His actions had "caused hurt and concern for others, including the woman involved, my family [and] friends". Does that sound like a perfect stranger to you?

Now I've worked at a lot of places with bosses in trouble so I was expecting the usual. Nothing to see here. We will investigate. That's 1000 per cent true when it comes to men described as rainmakers. Money always beats women's safety - remember Julia Szlakowski who blew the whistle on the man who sexually harassed her at AMP.

Not this time. Soon after the story appeared everywhere, news followed that Catalano, back in his Fairfax days affectionately called "The Cat" by dolts who think a creepy boss should have a cute nickname, ACM announced he'd been placed on an immediate leave of absence. Next minute, Catalano was telling the world he had mental health problems. Der. And instead of doing what organisations usually do, i.e., say we'll support him as he recovers, ACM did the right thing. Catalano was gone. At ACM, he'd been barely visible anyway. One senior woman told me: "I wouldn't recognise him if I fell over him." Mind you, she wouldn't be the one falling over.

Managing director of ACM Tony Kendall held a meeting on Monday afternoon for staff. Catalano would not be provided a lifeline. "Personally, I'm shocked, I'm appalled and, quite frankly, pretty pissed off," Kendall told staff. On Tuesday, ACM union members passed a motion of no confidence in Catalano. And on Wednesday afternoon, Rod Quinn, editorial director, acknowledged the disgust of furious staff members. "That anger is entirely justified ... we, the leaders at ACM, share that anger."

Then he talked about what would happen next - minus Catalano.

Wowza. This has rarely happened in my lifetime. Bosses in all manner of shit usually get given a free pass. My colleagues across the ACM network, especially the older women, were surprised, pleased. There is also, as you'd understand, an urgent desire among staff for tough reporting on our former chair. An early headline centred the alleged perpetrator - but leadership has vowed there will be no more of that. There will be full coverage of the court case with ACM's own reporter in Melbourne. I'm confident that it will be independent coverage, "with the same standards and rigour applied to every court story", just as Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) staff sought. I wish my shorthand was still in good shape.

In the days since, allegations of Catalano's various behaviours have emerged. They are shocking. They include revelations he allegedly beat his pregnant wife Stefanie in 2018. (Those who have reported on this have made clear they do not suggest the claims are true, only that they were made at the time).

His behaviours were not limited to his home life nor is it Catalano's first experience of an investigation. Back in 2018, the Australian Financial Review revealed there would be an investigation into workplace culture at Domain, the property arm of Fairfax and then Nine that Catalano helped build. God knows what happened there. And who can forget what happened to Pippa Leary, now a senior executive at News Corp. At some kind of Fairfax client event, Catalano introduced Leary to a crowd: "The only thing bigger than Pippa's tits is her brain." Leary did not flinch. Catalano was bundled out of the client tent in a hurry.

Folks are still reluctant to speak on the record about the behaviour of their former boss. Who knows when a powerful rich dude will emerge from the bonfire he built himself. But there is a general feeling of relief, especially among women. And a general feeling of terror should he do a phoenix. As one woman said, "I fear this will fade."

I am not joking when I describe it as a feeling of terror. Blokes with connections are rarely held to account. And blokes with connections who make money for their mates, financially successful bosses, are almost never held to account. This time, say all the ACM chiefs, it will be different. And, so far, I believe them. I rarely believe bosses who just want to tell you what they think you want to hear. But they got a shock themselves. Now the whole world knows.

It's been five years since women flooded the streets in the March4Justice, sparked by the sexual assault of Brittany Higgins and the historical allegations of rape made against the then attorney-general Christian Porter. We'd had enough.

Former sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins remembers those days and streets vividly. A year and a bit later, after the election of the Albanese government, the positive obligation on employers to take proactive action to prevent and better respond to abuse was made law, in December 2022. The Australian Human Rights Commission started enforcement a year later.

Jenkins, the author of the Respect@Work report, says: "So you now have companies taking proactive action on sexual harassment, leaders more confident about their duty to act, better avenues for complaint, and people feeling safer to speak up. Not everywhere but in good organisations workers tell me things are different, better."

And last year, the Australian Human Resources Institute released the results of a survey that asked which of the workplace reforms over the last three years were most positive.

"Respect@Work was named as number one," says Jenkins proudly.

Women also know that someone who behaves badly in private life often brings that exact behaviour to work. It's the culture, stupid. That's probably what made ACM management act. Even though the allegations against Catalano have not yet been proven, no action would mean betraying the many women at work. It would mean revealing to advertisers that values mean nothing. It would say exactly the same thing to readers. Management has vowed to address that and my colleagues and I plan to keep them honest.

I asked Anna Cody, the current Sex Discrimination Commissioner, about this change in corporate responsiveness. She said it shows that there is now an understanding that leaders must be held accountable.

"It's not just the impact of the event itself but how your employer responds to it," she says.

"It's so significant and can either transform the experience or it can entrench that sense of disillusionment and the pain and the suffering and the damage ... employers are increasingly recognising their responsibility."

This is a relief. It's too late for the multiple women who spoke to me but were too frightened to be named.

Editorial director Rod Quinn held an all-staff town hall on Wednesday. "Our dedicated journalists report on these distressing stories daily ... we will not allow the allegations against this individual to compromise the values, the integrity or the credibility of our mastheads or the hard-earned reputations of our staff.

"We owe it to our readers, our advertisers and the many hundreds of people whose livelihoods depend on this business.

"Above all, we owe it to women who are the victims of violence."

Above all. And that's two in five women in this country.

Jenna Price is a regular columnist.

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