Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. I was pleased to be with him this morning at the launch of White Ribbon Day, where we both made the commitment, yet again, to bring an end to violence against women.

Not all disrespect of women leads to violence against women, but that is where all violence against women begins. Respect for women must be at the very heart of what it means to be an Australian, and that's why we are taking strong action right now to stop family and domestic violence at the start. Last week, we launched the National Domestic Violence Order Scheme, which ensures that those who breach domestic violence orders from the court will be in breach of the law. We're amending the Family Law Act to stop perpetrators directly cross-examining a victim in family violence matters. We're introducing the Family Law Amendment (Family Violence and Other Measures) Bill this week to criminalise, as I noted, the breach of personal protection orders issued under the Family Law Act.

Turning to paid family and domestic violence leave, the Fair Work Commission recently rejected the ACTU's claim to introduce 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave into all modern awards, but it is still considering the role of unpaid family and domestic violence leave. We respect, as honourable members know, the independence of the commission. We await that decision and we'll consider it very carefully.

But, regardless of what the commission decides, Australian men must think about what they can do to advance equality and call out violence whenever they see it. In our roles as fathers, sons, brothers, colleagues, mates and leaders, all of us are capable of saying that that behaviour and that language is not okay when we see someone showing disrespect.

I want to remind the honourable member, the Leader of the Opposition, that he recently made a very deliberate decision to visit the CFMEU picket line at the Oaky Creek North mine, where the union has been running an outrageous campaign of vile abuse, threats of physical—

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