Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's a pleasure to rise and speak on the Fair Work Amendment (Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Bill 2018. I would agree with a number of points that the member for Gorton has made—in particular, the impact of the scourge of domestic violence on particularly women and children. I have spoken in this House previously in support of another bill related to the area of family violence, the Family Law Amendment (Family Violence and Cross-examination of Parties) Bill 2018, and I can say that both these bills are a great example of the commitment by this government to fighting the scourge of domestic violence and supporting the victims of the egregious harms that are inflicted on women in particular.

If we reflect, last Sunday was the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. I'd like to take the opportunity to acknowledge the Minister for Human Services and Digital Transformation for his hard work and commitment in his portfolios. Disappointingly, we see a number of people each and every day requiring financial assistance and crisis payments. I was talking with John and Michaela Porter from Nightlight last week. Just in the last week and a half they've had four calls—sadly, most of them late at night—for support for people in crisis, and in some cases as a result of domestic violence.

I think it's important that we continue to look at ways that we can support women, in particular, in very difficult circumstances. And we are doing that through the measures outlined in this bill. The bill is designed to provide an entitlement to five days of unpaid family and domestic violence leave to all employees under the Fair Work Act. This means that some eight million Australian workers will have access to this leave if they experience family or domestic violence.

To be clear—and I'm sure the community would be relieved to know this—the leave is not available to perpetrators of family or domestic violence. This government has demonstrated in a number of ways, which I will go into a little later, its full commitment to assisting people when they're facing the terrible situation of family and domestic violence. I spoke the other day on a wonderful local organisation, Lilly Pilly, which is trying, in very difficult circumstances for families, to bridge some of the gap and the divide which occurs as a result of family and domestic violence.

Sadly, as we reflect on the first 11 months of this year, we see that some 72 Australian women and 20 children have been murdered due to domestic violence. Across the country, a total of 212 Australians have died in 2018 as a result of murder or manslaughter, with male violence accounting for some 90 per cent of that. This situation is only worsening. We've seen a steep increase in domestic violence deaths this year compared with last year.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's February report found that one in six Australian women and one in 16 Australian men had experienced physical and/or sexual violence by a current or previous partner. And one in four women and one in six men had experienced emotional abuse by a current or previous partner. Sadly, the report showed that those most at risk were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, young women, pregnant women, women with disabilities and women experiencing financial hardship. And women and men who experience abuse have witnessed domestic violence as children.

As I've said in this place recently, family and domestic violence is about men, women and children. It's not about statistics; it's about human beings—not the numbers but the mothers, daughters, fathers, sons and grandparents. It's about the people next door, many who keep it secret and choose to suffer in silence for weeks, months and years. Sadly, it's in every community, every electorate and every strata of life. It's a human cost to our society that is both devastating and intolerable. And it's part of that human toll that this bill seeks to address.

Through the leave being enshrined in the National Employment Standards, all employees covered by the Fair Work Act will be guaranteed the minimum leave entitlement, regardless of whether they're full-time, part-time or casual, or covered by awards, enterprise agreements or individual agreements. As the member for Gorton outlined, it's heartening to see that many businesses have already decided to take that step in and of their own volition. A full five days leave will be available each year from the anniversary of the date on which somebody commenced employment.

In addition to this bill, the government is taking comprehensive action to address family violence. We have zero tolerance for violence against women and children. We're committing well in excess of $300 million to address their safety. At the recent federal budget, the government committed an additional $54 million for women's safety initiatives, including $11.5 million for 1800RESPECT, $6.7 million for DV-alert, $14.2 million for the Office of the eSafety Commissioner to help make cyberspace safe for women and $22 million to combat elder abuse.

In 2015, this government committed $100 million to a women's safety package. Under this package, the government committed to $12 million to trial with the states the use of innovative technology to keep women safe such as GPS trackers for perpetrators. There was $5 million for safer technology, including working with telecommunications companies to distribute safe phones for women. There was $17 million to keep women safe in their homes by expanding initiatives like the Safe at Home program to install CCTV cameras and other safety equipment and by conducting risk assessments of victims' homes, helping change their locks and scanning for bugs. There was $5 million to expand 1800RESPECT, the national telephone and online counselling and information service, to ensure more women get support. There was $2 million of increased funding for MensLine for tools and resources to support perpetrators not to reoffend and $15 million to enable police in Queensland to better respond to domestic violence in remote communities. And there were a range of other measures.

So we can see that, across the spectrum, we are seeking to find ways and solutions to provide support and assistance to women and children who are in very, very difficult situations. Within the framework of the national plan, the government is delivering on its commitments made under the third action plan with another $100 million investment over three years, announced in 2016. As we see, the bill has implemented or matches the decision of the Fair Work Commission for award based employees. I think it is important that we continue to find ways to support women who generally in these situations may not also be the primary income earner in their household, which means that, in these difficult circumstances, it is even more difficult for them financially. There is a cost to trying to relocate.

There are some great services in my community of Forde that provide enormous help for women in domestic violence situations. I mentioned Nightlight earlier. There is Twin Rivers, which provides crisis care and support; and Logan Women's Health and Wellbeing Centre, which has just merged with WAVSS Across the Redlands to create a new organisation focused on women's health and wellbeing. All of these are supported with the programs that I have outlined the government is funding and continues to fund to support women and children in these difficult circumstances.

The importance of this bill is that it gives women, when they need to have time off as a result of family or domestic violence, protection from unlawful adverse actions by their employer. They want to know that, if they do need this time off, they have a job to go back to, that they're going to be well looked after and well treated by their employers in a very difficult circumstance. I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of employers in Australia, irrespective of whether this is in law or not, do look after their employees when they're in this situation. But I think there are those who do not. I think that to enshrine these standards in the Fair Work Act is an important step in protecting and supporting women in facing family and domestic violence situations, which, sadly, as I noted earlier, occur more and more frequently. I commend this bill, in its unamended form, to the House.

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