Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I take note of the answer of Senator Cash to the question asked by Senator Moore about public sector bargaining, in particular with regard to domestic violence leave and family leave. I note that this morning in this house we had breakfast to acknowledge that it will soon be International Women's Day. It was a very well-attended breakfast, where both the Prime Minister, Mr Turnbull, and the opposition leader, Mr Shorten, spoke about the importance of addressing domestic violence and about how important it is to curb this scourge of Australia to ensure that women are empowered, that women have equality and that women are able to be full participants in the community. I certainly recommend to people that they have a look at the statement that the Leader of the Opposition made this morning. I am very proud of what Mr Shorten said with regard to domestic violence. He gave practical examples of how we in the parliament can assist to ensure that we wipe out domestic violence.

I do note, like my colleague Senator Polley, that the Minister for Women, Senator Cash, who was also at the breakfast this morning, when asked the important question, 'What is the Turnbull government's attitude to retaining domestic-violence and work-family leave provisions in public sector enterprise agreements?' unfortunately immediately took the low road and started to attack the union that represents public service workers in this country—a very disappointing response, I thought. But we in the Labor party were not surprised that that was the initial reaction of the minister for the status of women. Of course, we heard that reinforced by both Senator Macdonald and Senator O'Sullivan's contributions in the taking note of answers debate today.

The reason that the Labor Party asked these questions about domestic-violence leave and work-family leave is that we know the devastating impact that domestic violence has on working women, and it affects women in the public sector as it does women in the private sector. Both the public sector and some private sector firms have made great strides in ensuring that domestic-violence leave is available to women as part of enterprise agreements or other workplace negotiations.

I point out that the whole issue of domestic-violence and work-family leave was put on the table in enterprise bargaining negotiations by trade unions. It did not just appear there out of nowhere. It was put there by trade unions, who have worked very hard to bring this issue into the workplace so that it can be dealt with, because we know that women in the workplace who are affected by domestic violence suffer enormously.

Not only do they suffer physically and have to maybe take sick leave or leave to look after their children when the relationship is in strife; they also often have to take leave to deal with things like legal matters, to move house to escape a violent partner or to find alternative schooling for their children when they have had to move away from the family location because of the domestic violence perpetrated on them. Those things mean that women miss out on many workplace benefits, including opportunities for promotion or pay rises—because they are dealing with violence at home that affects them in the workplace.

At the last International Women's Day, in 2015, the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, made some significant commitments about what a Labor government would do to ensure that there was adequate funding in particular for legal services for women suffering domestic violence, because we know that that is another big factor affecting women. The Labor Party will also support unions to ensure that domestic-violence leave and work-family leave is included in enterprise bargaining agreement frameworks for the public sector.

It is a responsibility of government. We cannot wash our hands of it, as the Turnbull government has done, and say, 'It's up to the agencies in the public sector to determine whether or not we have domestic-violence leave.' This government can make that decision. This government can ensure that agencies in the public sector include domestic-violence leave and work-family leave in public sector enterprise agreements. It is not appropriate for the Minister for Women to stand here and say, 'It's not up to me.' It is up to her. It is up to all of us—but, in particular, it is up to the Turnbull government. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.