Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Family violence can affect anyone. We know that it is not class based; we know that it is not culturally based. We know that, from the statistics, one woman every 10 days loses her life to family violence. And we know we need to be doing more as a country and as a government to be helping these women and, quite often, their children. It's a situation that many of us in this place know of an example. We know of someone who may have lost their life or who has gone through or is going through the tough decision about what to do, whether they be a loved one, a family member, a neighbour, a work colleague or somebody in our community. Everybody knows somebody who has been a victim or a survivor of family violence. We say this with a heavy heart because we know that the bill before us has come too late for too many women. This bill has come too late for women who may have survived but have scars. This bill has come too late for children who carry their experiences with them.

The Fair Work Amendment (Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Bill 2022 replaces the current entitlement in the National Employment Standards of five days of unpaid family and domestic violence leave in a 12-month period with 10 days of paid leave for full-time, part-time and casual employees. It also extends the definition of family and domestic violence to include current and former intimate partners of an employee and members of an employee's household. When the minister introduced this bill into the parliament, he explained in detail why it was necessary to extend this entitlement to a broader group of employees than other entitlements have done. Currently, casual employees aren't entitled to sick leave. This bill goes further than any other workplace entitlement because family violence doesn't distinguish employment status. You can be somebody wanting to leave an abusive relationship, whether you're a full-time, part-time or casual employee. That is why it is so important that this bill include casual workers.

More than 11 million Australian workers, including casuals, will have access to 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave under this legislation. Casual workers are not spared from family and domestic violence. In fact, women who are experiencing family and domestic violence are more likely to be employed in casual work, and we cannot leave them behind. That is why it is a universal entitlement. It is needed. This is a historical step that we, as a parliament, are making. It will change the lives of women experiencing family violence. It will save lives. Those who say that aren't romanticising, celebrating or glorifying what this bill will do. It will literally save lives because it will give women pay and time and an opportunity to have a conversation with their employer about why they need time off to deal with what is happening in their lives.

Far too often we hear testimony from family and friends: 'Why didn't she let me know? Why didn't she speak up? Why didn't she just leave?' For far too many women, the reason not to leave is a financial one—they can't afford to lose that day of pay; they've run out of leave, if they're entitled to leave; they just can't see a way out. Whilst this is not the silver bullet, it is one way that we're hoping to help those women who make that decision to leave an abusive relationship. Paid family and domestic violence leave is part of our commitment that we are standing here making together, hopefully as a parliament, to provide the leadership and investment that we need to support families and to help end the hideous cycle of family and domestic and sexual violence. Paid family and domestic violence leave is a long-overdue change.

I do want to acknowledge that in my time here this is an issue that the parliament—particularly us when in opposition—did take seriously and did work constructively on. We did support the five days of unpaid leave when it was first introduced by the previous government, and at that time we called for it to be paid, because we know that very few people can actually afford to give that day up if they need that money to pay rent and bills. Those 10 days give women the opportunity to attend court, to change schools for their child if they need to, to spend a day with their kids, to work with them on what's going on and happening, to attend counselling, and to do whatever they need to do to get themselves to a safe place where they can feel safe from violence and start to slowly rebuild their lives after the experiences that they've had.

We talk a lot about it being women, because it nearly always is. Yes, there are a few incidents where it's men who are victims of family and domestic violence, but it's nearly always women—those are the statistics—and children. Children in these relationships either bear witness or are themselves victims of violence. This is why this reform is so necessary and long overdue. This change will give workers, overwhelmingly women, the means to escape violent situations without risk of losing their jobs or financial security.

I can remember having a conversation with a woman in my electorate shortly after I was elected. She'd fled Melbourne, to central Victoria, and was staying with friends. She was still making the tough commute back to Melbourne to work. She was worried that her former partner would turn up at her workplace and was struggling to have the conversation with her son about why they were staying for an extra-long period with their friends. She eventually ran out of her leave entitlements and eventually had to quit her job because she just couldn't continue that commute. She was leaving the area to move somewhere else because she was struggling to get access to accommodation. She felt embarrassed about the idea of turning up to work without having been able to have a shower, if she were forced to live out of her car. She felt embarrassed to have the conversation with her work colleagues about what she was going through, because she thought that so many of them were good friends with her former partner. These are the thoughts, the ideas and the real conversations that women are having each and every day.

This entitlement now makes it law and gives them the opportunity to have leave and to ask for leave. Yes, there is a big support package that needs to go with this—an education piece for our employers and for women and for work colleagues to have about why this entitlement is necessary, to encourage women to ask for it if they need it, and to encourage employers to support women who need it. But having the entitlement legislated in the first place means we're halfway there.

Another example is a small business in my electorate who reached out. They knew that one of their workers was a victim of family violence, and they wanted to do all they could to help her and said: 'What can we do? We don't know who to turn to. This person is an invaluable employee. We can see her burning through her leave. We know she needs help, and we don't know what to do.' At that stage, there was no entitlement for unpaid leave. There was no-one in Fair Work or in organisations that this business could turn to for support. They had to wing it alone. It shouldn't be that way. If we are going to be serious about ending the systemic and endemic—or pandemic—issue that we have of women being victims of family and domestic violence, we have to normalise the conversation and give employers, as well as women, the tools and the opportunity to support their workers in these situations.

The good news for this proactive employer was that they did get help from the Centre for Non-Violence—which is based in my electorate—who quickly worked out a great plan. They did everything they could to keep on this woman, this particular employee of theirs, who they said ran the place—she ran the books, she ran the diary and she was invaluable to them—and today they are all stronger than ever.

I really want to congratulate this business and other businesses and employers who have done the right thing and reached out, because it is a tough time. It's a tough time for anyone who knows that someone they care about is going through family and domestic violence—how to support them. And quite often you don't know the best way to help them. So that is why seeing the leadership from this business has really stuck with me. I hope that more businesses, once this bill is enacted, are able to do the same and that this gives them the opportunity to understand how they can better support their employees.

Following consultation with business, the government has determined that the schedule will commence from 1 February 2023 for most employees. Small businesses will have an extra six months to adjust to the change, meaning the scheme will be fully operational in August of next year. This is a change that could have been made years ago but wasn't. Even though it had the support of the business community and would have easily passed the parliament, it has taken this parliament—it is up to us, the 47th Parliament—to make this a reality.

The campaign began long ago, and I want to acknowledge the efforts of the ASU—the Australian Services Union—and of civil society organisations and the community sector in campaigning for this. They did not give up. They wanted to see 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave enshrined in our National Employment Standards so that every worker who needed this entitlement could access it. The very first family violence leave enforceable instrument anywhere in the world was negotiated by the ASU Victoria and Tasmania branch into the 2010 Surf Coast Shire agreement, and I want to acknowledge the member for Corangamite, who was the mayor at the time. Leadership from the employer, the Surf Coast Shire Council, and from the union who fought for that entitlement to be in the agreement—that is where we work best. The reason why what ASU and the civil society members did was so significant was that in many cases they weren't fighting for this entitlement for themselves, which is what usually happens in union campaigns; they were fighting for this entitlement for every worker in every workplace. That is why their We Won't Wait campaign deserves recognition.

What else needs to be done? As I said, this is just one of many things, many initiatives, that we need to do if we are going to stop the endless cycle of family and domestic violence. We know from the stats that, in the 12 minutes that I have been speaking, the police have already been called out six times. Every two minutes, the police are called out to an incident of family and domestic violence. We need to be supporting our frontline workers. We need to make sure that they've got the skills and that there are enough of them to support women who are fleeing family violence. Our government has also announced an additional 500 frontline community workers; funding for consent and respectful relationship education in schools; safe and affordable housing for women fleeing family violence, including more accommodation to be built in my electorate; and a new Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence Commission.

This is just the beginning. We know this has to be a partnership, a compact and a commitment—not just from our government but also from state governments, from local governments, from every employer and from every organisation—that we work together so that, in a generation's time, these horrible statistics are not still a reality. If we want to support women to leave, we need to do so with every tool and every opportunity we have. We do not want to be here in a generation's time talking about the lost generation of women—one every 10 days losing their lives to family and domestic violence—and their children and family members who are left behind to pick up the pieces.

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