Libby Coker (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. How is the Albanese Labor government ensuring workers experiencing family and domestic violence aren't forced to choose between their income and their safety?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite for the question. It is particularly important that it comes today and from the member for Corangamite, who in her former role as a mayor was the first employer in the world to establish family and domestic violence leave.

From today, 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave is available as a right for all workers who are covered by the Fair Work Act. As of today, an additional 2.2 million workers are eligible. That means that now, across the economy, up to 11 million workers are now covered for family and domestic violence leave. Workplaces play a key role in providing critical support. Over 68 per cent of people experiencing family and domestic violence are in paid work. Leaving a violent relationship is already hard, with risks of joblessness, financial stress, homelessness and poverty. This law doesn't fix all of the issues; it just removes one of the barriers in leaving a violent relationship, and that's that someone should no longer have to ask, 'Can I afford to be safe?' Family and domestic violence erodes access to work, career progression and financial independence. Overwhelmingly, but not exclusively, this impacts on women. Paid family and domestic violence leave will ease these affects, reducing the gender pay gap, supporting gender equality and increasing women's economic security. We used a simple principle: getting out shouldn't mean losing pay.

Access to family and domestic violence leave applies differently to most leave entitlements. Normally, a leave entitlement wouldn't extend to casuals, but you shouldn't have to choose between your safety and your pay. Normally, a leave entitlement doesn't start from your first day of work, but you shouldn't have to choose between your safety and your pay. Normally a leave entitlement is at the base rate of pay, not whatever additional loadings would have been attached to the shift, but you shouldn't have to choose between your safety and your pay.

I want to acknowledge that this particular legislative change has come as a result of a long campaign over many years. I acknowledge that it ended up being supported by both sides of the chamber. I want to acknowledge the frontline workers, the unions, the academics and the survivors who drove this change. I want to acknowledge all those in the caucus, in particular, who campaigned for us to take this policy to the last election—for it to be something that would change in the law in the event of an Albanese Labor government—and acknowledge that, now for 11 million workers covered under the Fair Work Act, they don't need to choose between their safety and their pay.