Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is an important motion that identifies the problem of domestic violence as it affects, mostly, women in the workplace, and the member for Kingston is right to bring the matter before parliament. Of course, as members of the coalition, we can only agree that domestic violence is a scourge in our society, as it is in any country. In Australia this problem does not seem to be diminishing from one generation to the next, and we know that for Aboriginal women, particularly, life can be hell as they experience domestic violence at a level that is almost unprecedented in the developed world.

Two-thirds of women who suffer the trauma of domestic violence with their current partner are also trying to hold down a job. Financial independence is crucial for women trying to break away from a domestic violence situation but unfortunately too many find it almost impossible to retain their employment if they are experiencing domestic violence. For example, the victims may have to change jobs or move from permanent, full-time to part-time employment because of the experience of violence at home or the invasion of their workplace by their violent partner. Sometimes it is a deliberate attempt on the man's part to ensure that his partner cannot have the protection of the workplace or be independent financially. The violent partner may deliberately try to humiliate the woman at work or intimidate fellow workers. As a consequence of domestic violence, women may have to take more days off and their productivity suffers. They do not tend to be the employee of choice when they come to work bruised, injured in some way and psychologically cowed.

We know that, in 2005, over 1.2 million women across Australia experienced domestic violence at some time during their lifetime. Elizabeth Broderick, Sex Discrimination Commissioner and Commissioner responsible for Age Discrimination, has found that at least weekly an Australian woman is killed by her ex- or current partner, often after many years of vicious abuse.

In Victoria statistics show that domestic violence is a leading cause of death, disability and illness in women aged between 15 and 44. The tragedy is that children witnessing that abuse, usually in the home, are also damaged psychologically if not physically. Children who are repeatedly subject to or witness family violence may internalise the belief that the only way to vent frustration or feelings of inadequacy is by lashing out and physically assaulting or verbally abusing your partner.

In 2007-08, most of the 260 homicides in Australia were domestic homicides involving the death of a family member, and most of the victims were women. For every death there are many more children terribly damaged by that violence. Quite obviously, it is a national problem that we need to be addressing more successfully and comprehensively.

In the Parent Safety Survey Australia 2005—this was cited in 2010-11 so it is the most recent data—615 of the women who said they had experienced domestic violence also said that they had children in their care at the time, and 59 per cent of those women who had experienced violence by a previous or current partner since the age of 15 were pregnant at some time during the violent relationship. Some women felt that perhaps it was the pregnancy that triggered the violence, or escalated it. Too often domestic violence is considered a private matter and not one to be discussed by workplace colleagues or management even if there are suspicions that a worker is being abused at home. Some businesses are now taking a stand, however, in order to better protect the abused worker from job loss itself or from having a situation in the workplace where they are forced to take fewer hours of work or more flexible arrangements which will mean less pay for the woman and then, again, less financial independence. In Brisbane there is an organisation called CEO Challenge that is taking the message of domestic violence into the workplace, and this is a good thing. This is very important.

I am concerned, though, about a risk management option called Bsafe. It was started by the Victoria Police in Benalla. It was a family violence prevention network. This found that you could very definitely make women safer by giving them a monitor that they could activate should the partner who was abusing them come into the precinct, trying to contravene an order. We asked for that program to be continued to be funded by the federal government. Sadly, the federal government refused. Bsafe is now, fortunately, picked up by the Victorian Women's Trust and personal donations. But for a long time it looked like the 100 or so women being protected by that system were to be left high and dry. We have to be more serious about domestic violence, particularly in the workplace.

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