Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very pleased today to rise to move this important motion, which recognises that two-thirds of Australian women who have experienced domestic violence with their current partner are currently in paid employment.

There are many definitions of domestic violence, but commonly included is persistent intimidation, control and physical, emotional, sexual and financial abuse, most commonly perpetrated by male intimate partners against women. It is estimated that without appropriate action to address domestic violence against women and their children, three-quarters of a million Australian women will experience and report violence in the period to 2021-22, costing the Australian economy an estimated $15.6 billion.

The prevalence of domestic violence is concerning. Certainly, I am very pleased that the federal Labor government is taking action to address this issue through the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022. It is important that we also recognise the specific impact of domestic violence on Australian women as workers. Data collected by the National Domestic Violence and Workplace Survey published in 2011 confirms that the impact of domestic violence is a significant issue in Australian workplaces.

I have to make the comment at this point that I had not been fully aware of this until the member for Page brought this to my attention. I would like to commend the member for Page; she does not have the opportunity to speak on this motion tonight, but she actually raised this issue and put me in touch with a number of people who feel very passionately about it. I am very pleased that I have now brought this motion to the House for further consideration.

The motion recognises the significant impact that domestic violence can have on the employment of women who are subject to domestic violence. The findings of the National Domestic Violence and Workplace Survey, as well as a number of other studies conducted around the world, show the negative impact of domestic violence on employment of victims. Research suggests that perpetrators of domestic violence implement job interference tactics both in the workplace and at home which can result in reduced work performance. Some of the behaviours victims have reported as negatively impacting their ability to perform their job effectively include physical restraint so that they are unable to attend work, beatings so severe that they are physically unable or too ashamed to attend work, hiding car keys or destroying clothes to prevent victims from attending work, inflicting sleep deprivation or emotional distress so that the person is too fatigued to function while at work, harassment via the phone or email while the person is trying to work and even stalking the person at work.

I have to say I also experienced this by seeing it at one workplace that I used to represent when I worked in the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association. There was a worker in Myer, where I represented the women, who was subject to domestic violence threats at the workplace. Indeed, unfortunately—and it was a very tragic experience—her partner came in and actually shot her while at work. The impact that had was, obviously, that loss of life; but I went to her funeral and I was moved by the impact it had. It was just an awful situation that we cannot underestimate: the impact that it has on, obviously, the person and, indeed, all their co-workers.

If these sorts of insidious behaviours do occur, the victim often finds it difficult to make it to work. There is lost productivity, where the victim can become distracted as a result of the anxiety and fear that domestic violence does cause, and there is absenteeism, where victims may be unable to attend work while recovering from physical and psychological injuries because they are so fearful for the safety of themselves or their co-workers. Indeed, the most horrid outcomes can occur. Many respondents who reported having experienced these kinds of behaviours in the National Domestic Violence and the Workplace Survey attested to the considerable work performance impact of verbal, physical, emotional and psychological violence in terms of the ability to attend work and the ability to perform well while at work. The risk to personal safety in the workplace and to the safety of co-workers is an important aspect of the impact of domestic violence on women's employment. As I mentioned, Australian homicide data indicates that intimate partners or ex-partners accounted for 55 per cent of homicides of women in Australia in 2007-08. This is a significant issue.

Research suggests that women subject to domestic violence experience high levels of resignation and termination such that they are rarely able to sustain jobs on a long-term basis. They often have disrupted work histories, having had to frequently change jobs either because they are coerced by their partners to resign or because they have unexplained absenteeism and reduced productivity that have led to termination. In addition, women subject to domestic violence are disproportionately represented in lower-paying jobs and part-time employment when compared to women with no experience of domestic violence. The costs to businesses across the country in terms of lost productivity, misuse of resources and staff turnover as a result of domestic violence are calculated to be hundreds of millions of dollars. We also know that employment and financial independence are so important and are part of a key pathway for women to escape violent relationships, yet too often as a result of domestic violence women lose this pathway through termination.

This motion recognises the positive impact of the inclusion of domestic violence leave clauses in contracts of employment to ensure protections for victims including additional paid leave, access to flexible working arrangements where possible and assurances that the employee's details will be treated confidentially and disclosure will not lead to discriminatory treatment. The vast majority of respondents in the National Domestic Violence and the Workplace Survey believed that workplace entitlements could help to reduce the impact of violence in the workplace.

The most important part of including a clause in a contract of employment is that it would send a very clear message to the women employed in an organisation that if they were suffering from domestic violence the organisation would support them. Based on experience, a lot of women suffering from domestic violence would not choose to take domestic violence leave. They would probably exhaust their annual leave and other leave entitlements before they would move to domestic violence leave. But in a case where it was needed, I think it sends a very strong message that if these clauses are included those women who have experienced domestic violence can have time off in a crisis. For example, they would be able to recover from injuries, attend court when necessary, make statements to the police, reorganise bank accounts and schooling arrangements for dependent children and access counselling.

The motion acknowledges the introduction of domestic violence clauses for public sector employees in Queensland and New South Wales, and congratulates those organisations in the private sector which have moved to incorporate these clauses in contracts of employment. It is important to recognise the incorporation of domestic violence clauses in the Crown Employees (Public Service Conditions of Employment) Award in New South Wales and the Queensland government's special leave directive. There is also a range of different organisations across the country that have moved to introduce domestic violence leave clauses, including the People's Choice Credit Union in my own state of South Australia which gets a top rating for the particular clause when rated against the key principles endorsed at the Australian Council of Trade Unions congress in 2012.

Research indicates a strong positive arrangement between flexible workplace support and employee outcomes in situations involving domestic violence. The introduction of domestic violence clauses is critical to ensuring that women employees who have experienced domestic violence are appropriately protected and able to continue their employment in the long term. The motion states—and I think this is really important—that we urge private companies and public sectors alike to look at domestic violence leave clauses in their enterprise agreements. The issue might be about cost, but I do think this is an important signal to employees that they are supported and that they are able to bring up issues of domestic violence.

Of the respondents involved in the National Domestic Violence and Workplace Survey, 100 per cent agreed that domestic violence impacts the lives of employees, and we know that seeking work or training outside the home can actually exacerbate domestic violence. Some of the unacceptable behaviours I have discussed have significant consequences for the ability of women employees to meet their work requirements and roles and I do think it is important that we continue to raise this awareness. We have often talked about domestic violence; I commend the motion to the House.

Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the motion moved by the member for Kingston and to support the tenor of her argument in respect of the provision of support for those who experience domestic violence. In particular, elements of this private member's motion go to some industrial matters and I am not going to debase the need for any workplace to have consideration for the needs of victims. I note that two-thirds of Australian women who have experienced domestic violence with their current partner are in paid employment. The member for Kingston provided further points that will impact directly on the employer and that have implications for workplaces in respect of an increased burden of pressure; therefore, I would argue that the propositions within the motion should be considered in the context of the many factors that prevail within the workplace environment.

Firstly, we always have to consider that domestic violence is not just physical violence. It can also be emotional abuse, which is often used as a tool to control an individual, with deadly consequences that are not physical in the way that is seen if the violence is physical. There is also economic abuse by depriving somebody in a relationship of access to the funding that is normally there for the household; controlling what they are able to buy and use their money for is another extreme of abuse. There is social abuse, which is the putting down of an individual regularly and making them feel worthless or denigrating them in front of others, which is equally as damaging. Then there is the spiritual abuse, depriving someone of the ability to fulfil their belief in their faith and their practices.

I personally abhor those who use these approaches to control another person in that manner. It is not something that we expect to see in relationships, yet so often as a classroom teacher and through my life experiences I saw people subjected to that range of abuse. I want to quote a couple of researchers who have done some significant work on this issue which goes to some very relevant things that we need to think about. Jane Mulroney, a senior research officer, provided information in a paper on the Australian Domestic and Family Violence Clearinghouse website under the heading, 'Australian Statistics on Domestic Violence'. I want to cite both pieces of work exactly so that I do not paraphrase the important points they make. I cite Jane Mulroney accordingly:

The first national data on incidence and prevalence of domestic violence using a representative sample of 6300 Australian women was provided by the Women's Safety Australia study (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS] 1996).

The ABS study measured the incidence of physical and sexual violence against women (18 years and over) during the 12 months prior to the survey and over their lifetime (since the age of 15). For the purposes of this survey, violence was defined as any incident involving the occurrence, attempt or threat of either physical or sexual assault (ABS 1996, p. 2). Such incidents were defined as actions considered to be offences under criminal statutes in each state or territory. Accordingly the data does not reflect the entire picture of women's experiences of domestic and family violence as it does not record other forms of abuse—

which I commented on earlier—

(emotional, social, financial etc.) that occur in tandem with acts of violence.

These findings support the information provided by the member for Kingston. The paper continues:

Key results from the study indicate:

which is still a significant number—

When we look at those figures we can see they are substantial in terms of the impact on the workplace. That would mean that the consideration, flexibility and compassion that need to be shown are not small in their detail or number.

The Australian Institute of Criminology, in analysing homicides in Australia between 1989 and 1999, found that 20.8 per cent of all homicides involved intimate partners. This represents approximately six homicide incidents a year within Australia. The study then raises the relationships in various manners and the patterns that have emerged. Indigenous women are far more likely to be killed by their partner than non-Indigenous women. Just under half of all Indigenous homicides occur as a result of domestic altercation. Filipino women living in Australia are almost six times over-represented as victims of homicide compared to other women. A pattern is emerging of the extent of the problem. In one sense the workplace support that needs to be provided for those who rely on their job for economic independence and for the provision of family becomes quite a challenge. I would rather see us go upstream.

Let me also say that one in three victims of domestic violence is male. The Australian Bureau of Statistics' personal safety survey in 2006, the largest of all surveys and the most recent in terms of violence in Australia, found that 29.8 per cent of victims of current partner violence since the age of 15 were male and that 24.4 per cent, or almost one in four, were victims of a previous partner and violence since the age of 15. Two other figures that I found disturbing, if true, are that 29.4 per cent of victims of sexual assault, or almost one in three, during the last 12 months were male.

Domestic violence and abuse, of all the natures of abuse, are quite significant when you consider the context of the motion moved by the member for Kingston. One of the challenges for us is to encourage workplaces to be cognisant of some of the challenges that individuals face within their workplace. I have often found that, where an employer or a workplace is supportive, productivity and loyalty factors become much stronger when there a degree of empathy, understanding, leniency and flexibility are accorded those who are victims.

I think we have much work to do, but I do not believe that to incorporate it into an industrial award or into a clause within an industrial context will solve the problem. It will certainly require employers to be much more compassionate. Often, when we deal with complex issues like this, it is better to have somebody who walks with you and who is much more considered in the way in which they deal with employees who experience this. Often many of those who are victims of violence tend not to share that information within the workplace. When it is shared, then it also has a devastating effect. If we gave some weighting to reducing bullying by those who are cowardly in their behaviour and whose behaviour causes immense emotional and psychological damage to individuals, I think it would be a far better way to reduce the levels of domestic violence within our society. At the same time, I would strongly encourage employers to think about how they can give employees who experience this form of violence and abuse some latitude in the workplace. As I said earlier, employers who do that are often rewarded with a high degree of lasting loyalty from the employee, because, when someone helps you, you often reciprocate and give them back much more than they gave you.

I thank the member for Kingston for this private member's motion. I would support it in the context of doing more for the victims of domestic violence.

Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too thank the member for Kingston for bringing this important motion to the parliament. As stated in the member's motion, two-thirds of Australian women who have experienced domestic violence from their current partner are in paid employment. Anyone who has worked with or had any dealings with somebody who is a victim of domestic violence knows how much it impacts on that person's life. Quite often, there are many competing issues—including housing, security and care for any children involved—which confront a victim of domestic violence and which they have to resolve.

In trying to improve the situation for women in the workplace—as the previous speaker, the member for Hasluck, pointed out, there are men who are victims of domestic violence; but, generally speaking, women are the main victims of domestic abuse—a plethora of legislation has gone through this parliament. I see this motion as the next step along the way.

When I was looking at this issue, I became aware of the Australian Domestic and Family Violence Clearinghouse. They made a submission to the committee inquiry into the Fair Work Amendment (Better Work/Life Balance) Bill 2012 and reported the key findings of a survey on domestic violence and the workplace that they conducted in 2011. They said:

and, I am sure, SMSs as well. These are the types of harassment which some of us have seen in the workplace as extensions of domestic violence. The key findings continued:

This is new ground in the area of discrimination. We need to better protect workers who experience or have experienced domestic violence. I believe that by putting in place proper protection for workers who have experienced domestic violence we will be ensuring that those people can not only move on in their life but maintain their employment, which is really important for them.

If the Commonwealth embraces this legislation, it will not be the first legislation in this country. When Jodi McKay was the minister, the New South Wales government introduced legislation in that state, and it has also been introduced in Queensland.

I commend the work of the ACTU congress to the House. I also commend the work of the Australian Domestic and Family Violence Clearinghouse at the University of New South Wales and, in conjunction, with them the PSA. I think it is now time to recognise the impact that domestic violence has on women and other workers and to ensure that there is legislation and protection to look after their needs.

Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to 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.

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I commend the member for Kingston for raising this issue. Too often domestic violence is considered a personal, domestic or familial issue when in fact it is at times in the workplace, where it is most often referred to as an HR issue, a health care issue or an administrative concern. I would suggest that is an economic, a productivity and a performance matter as well.

I commend Australia's CEO Challenge and those involved. I noticed recently that a bit of correspondence I received as a White Ribbon Ambassador was actually a letter from CEO Challenge. I noticed that my good friend and former family law colleague Stephen Page is the deputy chair of that particular organisation. They do a lot to raise awareness, in Queensland particularly, in relation to this issue.

I also note that in Queensland, my home state, there is a conference on from 7 to 9 August titled 'Violence Against Women: an Inconvenient Reality'. FaHCSIA has $20,000 worth of assistance, as I understand, in relation to that. The website is www.violenceagainstwomenqld.com.au, and I recommend people look at that.

This government has the first ever National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and Their Children. Sadly, as other speakers have noted, one in three Australian women have experienced physical violence since the age of 15 and almost one in five have experienced sexual violence. It really is time to change all that. I mention that conference because a friend of mine and someone I know quite well, Gabrielle Borggaard, the manager of the Ipswich Women's Centre Against Domestic Violence, mentioned that to me and asked me to raise it in parliament. I also thank that organisation for their wonderful work they do in the Ipswich and West Moreton region. I congratulate them for the $370,000 they recently received to help up to 3,000 local teenagers. They are doing a lot of good work at the Love Bites program, particularly in high schools, trying to get to this issue at its core when the children are young men and women, at Bremer State High School, Ipswich State High School and Toogoolawah State High School. I congratulate them for the work they do. It is marvellous. It is really worthy. I know how committed these women are to reducing the scourge of domestic violence.

The funding they have received is part of the $86 million that we have committed in the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and Their Children 2010-2022. Sadly, in 2006 a national survey by the Australian Bureau of Statistics said that 15 per cent of Australian women had experienced violence by a previous partner and 2.1 per cent by a current partner. One of the statistics that really came out to me when I and the member for Murray were involved in the Doing time: time for doing report was that Indigenous women are 35 times more likely to be hospitalised by partner abuse than non-Indigenous women. This is a national tragedy, a national disgrace and a national shame, and we must do more about that. The impacts of domestic violence stop women going to work. It makes them more likely to be absent from work. It makes them more likely to have conflict with other people. It makes them more likely to be unproductive and to shift from job to job as they have to shift from residence to residence. They have to take time off for court appearances and the like. They have to look after their children because they are the only person at home.

Domestic violence takes many courses, and I am pleased this government has made the definition of domestic violence in the Family Law Act more contemporary. Sadly, after practising for 20 years in the jurisdiction of family law, the Family Law Act with its emphasis on physical and sexual acts in relation to the issue of domestic violence was not as contemporary as the state legislation. For example, the state legislation in Queensland talked about harassment or the likelihood of causing harassment but domestic violence takes many forms: physical abuse; threats and damage to property; forcing someone out of a car; abusing people; familial isolation; humiliation; stalking; depriving someone of contact with their children; abusing someone in front of children; and many other forms. We must do everything we can to stamp out domestic violence, because the impact on our economy is great—in 2003, the cost was $8.1 billion. This is an economic issue we need to tackle as well.

Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in this place like so many of my colleagues to talk about the incredibly important issue of domestic violence. Domestic violence is a very serious scourge on our society. The reason that I am speaking tonight is that I wish to highlight two particular aspects of it: firstly, the fact that those women who experience domestic violence—and it is predominantly women—can find themselves in a cycle of poverty and that poverty trap envelops their children and often their children's children. The fact is that domestic violence is the single biggest cause of homelessness, involving one in every two homeless women with children.

I had the experience last Thursday night of sleeping out, sleeping rough, in the St Vinnies CEO Sleepout. It was the second year I have been involved in the CEO sleepout. What is most startling to me is the statistics: so many people in our society in a country as great as ours are homeless and sleep rough every night—over 100,000 people. Over half of those people are women and a quarter of them are under the age of 18. The reasons people become homeless are very complex—for some people it can be substance abuse, drugs and alcohol, the loss of a job, the failure of a business, but women particularly find themselves homeless as a result of domestic violence.

Domestic violence is, as I said, a huge scourge on our community. I spoke that night with a woman who runs two women's refuges: one in metropolitan Melbourne and one in rural Victoria. One of the greatest concerns for me is that one of the problems she experiences every day is that there are limited places. In Melbourne there are 60 residential places and the outreach program reaches almost 300 people. She has to make a difficult choice: to turn women and children away or turn out women and children who are currently residing there in temporary accommodation.

This temporary accommodation can last for years before public housing becomes available for people in our community who are incredibility vulnerable and I place women and children in that category. I think it is important that we highlight this issue and the fact that there are people doing very good work in this area: St Vinnies, as I mentioned, is one that provides emergency housing. In my local community of Higgins, there is very good work being done by a number of local community groups, including St Joseph's emergency housing, that have transformed four old school rooms into four self-contained transitional units for families. The heartbreaking aspect of all of this is that there is such a huge need for this transitional housing. We would like to be in a very different position from the position we find ourselves in today, where women do not have the need to call upon such temporary housing in order to deal with this terrible issue.

Hopefully, if we do our jobs properly in this place and in the community, we can empower women who deal with this terrible behaviour to get the help they need to ensure that their children can live in a safe and secure environment, free from any violence. That is why each of us in this place speaks with one voice when we say no to violence against women and no to violence against children. It should never, ever be tolerated. We must always take a very strong stand. That is why I am pleased to talk on this motion tonight to highlight domestic violence as a critical issue that needs to be addressed at a national, state and local level to ensure that women receive the support they require to ensure that we can build a stronger and safer Australia.

Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in support of this motion. I also want to thank the member for Kingston for bringing this motion before the House and I also acknowledge the other members who have spoken in relation to this motion. As we know, there is no one quick fix to solve the problem of domestic violence. It is an ongoing issue. It is about education, it is about awareness and it is about support.

When we talk about domestic violence we are not talking only about physical violence but sexual, emotional and psychological abuse. The National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children, which is an initiative of the Council of Australian Governments, identifies some of the areas that are defined within domestic violence. It also points out that violence against women can be described in many different ways, and laws in each state and territory have their own definitions. Maybe we can all work towards having a common definition so that when we are talking about laws, about support and about workplaces, we are all talking about the same thing on the same basis.

Importantly, the Australian Domestic and Family Violence Clearinghouse fact sheet titled 'Domestic violence: a workplace issue' states:

VicHealth found that domestic violence is the leading contributor to death, disability and illness in women aged 15-44 years, being a greater contributor than factors like high blood pressure, smoking or obesity.

It goes on to explain the impacts of domestic violence when it comes to women in the workplace:

The impacts of domestic violence may stop women working or adversely affect their work performance due to sleep deprivation, injuries, clothes being hidden, promises of child minding being withdrawn, or women being physically prevented from leaving the home.

Those are just some of the effects. We also know that by acting to reduce the impacts of domestic violence in the workplace, employers can save the costs associated with lost productivity, misuse of resources, absenteeism and staff turnover. We know that being in employment is a key pathway to leaving a violent relationship. The financial security of employment allows women to escape becoming trapped in isolated, violent and abusive relationships and to maintain, as far as possible, their home and standard of living. That is why I want to acknowledge the work that the Queensland government, and particularly the previous Bligh government, did in introducing the program of action called For our Sons and Daughters to reduce domestic and family violence and, more recently, in changing the terms of the Public Service conditions of employment under 'special leave' to include 'other exceptional circumstances' including 'an employee who is dealing with matters arising from or as a result of family or domestic violence.' This is a really positive step forward. The member for Kingston mentions in her motion that not just Queensland but also New South Wales have introduced domestic violence clauses into legislation for their public sector employees. We encourage more governments to do this for the private sector as well as for the public sector.

As I said, there is a lot of work to be done on domestic violence, and a lot of it is done by our local community organisations. I acknowledge the Regional Community Association Moreton Bay and its family relationships service. Each year it holds a candlelight vigil. I have attended these over many years, and I went to the one held this year on 2 May. It is always a moving ceremony. This year it was held down at Humpybong Park, and we threw rose petals into the water. We also listened to some very personal stories, one from a woman who was the subject of domestic violence herself and another from a person whose niece lost her life to domestic violence. To stand there and hear these stories was very emotional and very raw, but we need to hear these stories. These women need to speak up, because, if they do not speak up and tell their stories, things are not going to change.

I know that we cannot make domestic violence go away, but we need to support these women more. We need to address housing so that they have somewhere to go, we need to ensure that they have support services in place and—as the member for Kingston's motion says—we need to support them in the workplace.

Teresa Gambaro (Brisbane, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship and Settlement) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too am pleased to speak to the motion on domestic violence that the member for Kingston has placed on the Notice Paper. More than half—58 per cent—of the 1,125 homicides of females in Australia over a nine-year period were committed by an intimate partner. That figure is absolutely staggering. As mentioned in the motion, two-thirds of Australian women who have experienced domestic violence by their current partner are in paid employment. I pay tribute to government programs and non-government organisations which play a very important role in our community. They offer refuge and assistance to victims of domestic violence and run educational and awareness programs to try to eradicate the problem, which really should have no place in our society. I pay particular tribute to two organisations in my electorate—the 139 Club and Good Sam's—who provide counselling and help for women who find themselves homeless. I was happy to join both these organisations recently in their fundraising ventures.

The motion we are debating tonight deals with the impact that domestic violence can have on the employment of women and on their contribution in the workplace and with the role that employers can play in helping those who suffer. Domestic violence is a very sensitive issue for any employer with workers who have experienced or who currently experience domestic violence. The psychological trauma and the mental effect it has on sufferers is terrible, and that sometimes makes it really hard for employers to approach an employee to talk about it and see what they can do. Unfortunately, I know this experience too well. As a former manager of a retail establishment, one of my saddest duties was counselling and supporting victims of domestic violence who worked with me at the store.

As the member for Kingston has acknowledged in the motion, both the New South Wales and the Queensland public sector employment acts contain provisions to help employees who suffer from domestic violence, and many private businesses are now incorporating the same sorts of provisions into their employment contracts. We as members of parliament should congratulate those private businesses and do everything we can to encourage what they are doing to become normal practice.

I turn to Australia's CEO Challenge in Queensland, which began with a vision of a world without domestic violence and which today has grown into a passionate and influential organisation. I have been a proud supporter of and participant in many of their programs and fundraising events. Through fundraising and proactive business partnership, Australia's CEO Challenge facilitates aid for local refuges and shelters which support the people who are worst affected by domestic violence. It does this by bringing together two very important components of our society: the business world and community organisations. There are many statistics that are often quoted when we talk about domestic violence. The worst statistics I have seen have been in an analysis undertaken by KPMG management consultants which showed that the cost to the Australian economy of violence against women and their children was estimated at $13.6 billion in 2008-09 with projected costs increasing if there was no reduction in the current rates. They estimate that that will increase to $15.6 billion by 2021-22—indeed, staggering figures. There are financial reasons as well as moral reasons for employers to help deal with this issue either through employment contracts or other financial partnerships. It is really great to see this organisation, amongst the many other organisations that work in this area, directly advocating and directly encouraging businesses to play a much more positive role in making our society one that is free of domestic violence.

In conclusion, I fully support the motion and I commend it to the House.

Debate adjourned.