Zoe Daniel (Goldstein, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Every two minutes in Australia, police are called to a domestic and family violence matter. These are our neighbours, our friends and our workmates. Since the age of 15, approximately one in four women have experienced violence by an intimate partner. These are our besties. These are our mothers. These are our daughters and their teenage friends. These are me. These are you. First Nations women are at least 32 times more likely to be hospitalised due to family and domestic violence than non-Indigenous women. On average, one woman is killed by her current or former partner every 10 days in this country.

Family and domestic violence can be physical, sexual or emotional, and it can affect anyone, no matter their gender. However, it affects women most severely. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' Recorded Crime—Victims data from 2021, more than a quarter of homicides nationally were family and domestic violence related, and most of the victims were women. Without adequate support, women have been made to bear the physical, emotional and financial cost of being trapped in a cycle of abuse and control at home, with no way out. Family and domestic violence carries health, welfare and social consequences which reach into every aspect of a victim's life. I'd like to take a moment to note the work of the amazing organisation Impact for Women that supports women and families through such trauma with clothes and household items in my electorate of Goldstein.

There are many economic consequences. Violence against women and their children has been estimated to cost Australia $26 billion a year. These costs relate to health services, criminal justice processes and lost productivity. While domestic and family violence largely occurs outside the workplace, its impact reaches into the workplace. More than 68 per cent of people experiencing family and domestic violence are in paid work. Many of them can't leave violent situations without risking joblessness, financial stress, homelessness and poverty. This is why paid family and domestic violence leave is so critical. As the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations said in July, 'No employee should be forced to make a choice between earning a wage and protecting the safety of themselves and their families.'

While I acknowledge the concerns of small businesses both inside and outside of my electorate, submissions to the Victorian royal commission into family and domestic violence made it clear that financial security is a significant protective factor in victims gaining freedom from abusive partners. To gain that freedom, victims-survivors need time off work to access legal appointments, find a new house, find a new school, attend court, move, be available to meet tradies to install safety measures and change financial accounts. Support for victims-survivors in their workplace is critical during the relationship separation phase. The 2021 Playing our part report by the Champions of Change coalition cited that, on average, it takes seven to eight attempts to leave a relationship and around $18,000 and 141 hours for a person to extricate themselves from that abusive relationship. Victims-survivors who are economically dependent on their perpetrator are more likely to remain in that relationship. The more financial independence a victim-survivor has, the more likely they are to be able to leave.

In the Monash University 2021 survey and in interviews with victims-survivors conducted as part of the Fair Work Commission's review of domestic and family violence leave provisions, victims-survivors described the importance of paid domestic violence leave:

I just needed some time to get myself together, my headspace, get some treatments, just to see where I am today. I just couldn’t believe what was happening to me, because it was a number of assaults. It was just awful.

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If I didn’t have access to [family violence] leave, I would have lost my job, I would have lost everything… I don’t know if I would have survived … [paid family violence leave] was my lifeline.

Domestic violence doesn't discriminate according to postcode, culture, education or workplace. I've spoken to women in my electorate of Goldstein who are trapped in violent relationships, too frightened to leave, too financially controlled to leave. As the member for Cowan said, these women are all around us. Whether a person is employed on a full-time basis in a well-paid, secure job or in casual, precarious employment, the consequences of living with violence are not diminished.

I commend this government for introducing its Fair Work Amendment (Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Bill and for extending this leave, importantly, to part-time and casual workers. In February 2022, 22.8 per cent of Australian employees, or around 2.6 million, were casuals, with female employees overrepresented in casual employment. The bill provides for the rate of pay for family and domestic violence leave to be calculated at an employee's full rate of pay, and I strongly support this provision in the bill. No one should be financially disadvantaged because they're leaving a violent relationship. We also know that perpetrators may have access to and, indeed, monitor their victim's bank account, so a reduction in a worker's pay could be a red flag to the perpetrator and put the victim at further risk of violence.

Paid leave will save lives and help vulnerable employees escape dangerous situations. It will allow women the opportunity to plan to leave, allow them to take action to leave, and support them after they choose to leave. But the effectiveness of the leave policy depends upon a safe and supportive workplace culture where employees feel comfortable to seek help at work. The administration and operation of this leave policy is just as critical as the existence of the legislation itself. Employers and managers can't be expected to become family and domestic violence counsellors or experts, especially those in small businesses that don't have HR departments. They can, however, ensure that the workplace has policies and procedures in place to support workers who are experiencing family and domestic violence. Small businesses must be supported in this, and I will continue to engage with those in my electorate regarding the transition to the implementation of these measures.

Critical to a worker's safety is the ability to recognise the signs of domestic violence and to refer workers to domestic violence services for expert advice and resources. This sort of whole-of-workplace training must become a priority under the next National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children. As others have noted, this bill is only one part of the framework. The bigger picture is the national plan. We must get this right, and it's urgent. The next national plan must have adequate funding, clearer actions and targets, and a well-chosen and properly resourced new family and sexual violence commission and commissioner who can ensure proper evaluation and accountability, so sorely lacking in the first national plan.

The previous plan failed to achieve the single target it set for itself—to see a significant and sustained reduction in violence against women and children during the 12 years from 2010 to 2022. In that time, rates of domestic violence have been stable, and rates of sexual violence have actually increased. Here are some of the key elements that must be embedded into that plan: we need genuine bipartisan commitment and funding to shift away from short-term, bandaid solutions towards longer-term funding cycles; there can be no improvement in women's safety—whatever the new plan's final form—unless it is backed by significant investment; and we need to address the structural drivers of family, domestic and sexual violence—in particular, gender inequality.

Gender inequality is a social condition characterised by unequal value afforded to men and women, and an unequal distribution of power, resources and opportunity between them. Power and control are at the core of all acts of domestic and family violence and occur in an environment of gender inequality. Gendered violence will only be truly addressed when Australian women are equal to men. We need primary prevention and education campaigns that build awareness of the support services available to victims-survivors of family and domestic violence and how to access them. We need education on safe, healthy and respectful relationships embedded into early childhood education settings more consistently.

Violence against women is a national emergency. As Australian feminist and writer Anne Summers said in her recent column:

… it is not poverty that causes domestic violence, as is often thought. It is the other way round. Violence causes poverty.

And it is this realisation that makes so many women remain in violent relationships.

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What kind of society forces women into such an intolerable situation?

Until women have equality in all sectors of society, and until they're safe inside and outside of their homes, we must apply a gendered lens to all policies and legislation.

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