Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

It's a national crisis and a national shame that one Australian woman is murdered each week by her current or her former partner, and the responsibility to end violence rests with all of us. Earlier this month we recognised the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Today we begin 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.

While domestic and family violence affects everyone, we know that women are disproportionately impacted. Violence and abuse against women exist in many forms: physical abuse, emotional abuse and financial abuse. In Australia, one in three women have experienced physical violence since the age of 15. There's a complex relationship going on here, and it is a relationship between attitudes towards women, people's economic circumstances, substance abuse and violence that we have to tackle. Today, I want to talk in particular about the relationship between financial security, female independence and the ability to leave a violent relationship, because it's a complex relationship.

If a woman is experiencing violence in a home, too many people still ask, 'Why doesn't she just leave?' Well, there are many barriers to leaving a violent relationship, and a key reason is your financial security. Leaving an abusive relationship and finding new and safe accommodation costs, on average, $18,000, and it takes an estimated 141 hours of time. Many women do not have access to a lazy $18,000 for a number of reasons, and it's partly to do with the structure of our economy, because women are more likely to work part time, work casually and have extended periods out of the workforce to care for children and family members. That means that the amount of savings, the amount of capital and the economic resources available to women are not the same as they are to their male counterparts.

Perpetrators of violence will often take control of household finances to restrict women from accessing money, and it leaves them little opportunity to flee. Fleeing the home means women need to search for new and safe accommodation at the same time as they may need to seek out health services, legal services and other support services. At the moment, too many women do this with too few resources. It is of deep concern that older women are the fastest-growing group facing homelessness in our community—women who have cared for others their whole lives are left with a choice to stay somewhere violent, to stay somewhere where they are deeply unhappy, or to live in poverty and, potentially, homelessness. It is unacceptable. It is hard not to conclude that the persistent unfairness faced by women at work—an unfairness that leaves women with lower status, less pay and less superannuation—is a contributor to the broader problem of violence.

In the short term, there are things we can do and we should do. Tackling violence is everyone's responsibility. It is the responsibility of business, it is the responsibility of community groups, it is the responsibility of our neighbourhoods, it is the responsibility of individuals and it is the responsibility of government. There is a very practical proposal on the table right now that would help women who right now are seeking our support to move themselves and perhaps their children to a place of safety. The government should introduce 10 days paid domestic violence leave into the National Employment Standards. It would be a very good first step to support women economically to leave violent relationships. Many businesses already provide for this, and the ones I've spoken to are shocked by the numbers of their staff who need to avail themselves of this leave. Last year the government introduced just five days unpaid domestic violence leave to the National Employment Standards. Self-evidently, this is not good enough. This does not provide the financial support and paid time that is truly needed to find safety and to exit violence. Government can and should just make it easier to leave.