Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

To those who perpetrate family and domestic violence: it is the government's view that providing a universal national entitlement to this benefit would not be in line with community expectations. However, this Fair Work Amendment (Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Bill 2022 will have a very significant impact. Over one million employees already have access to paid family and domestic violence leave through collective bargaining between workers and employers, and we know the impact that this entitlement can have. But by embedding this entitlement into the national employment standards, this legislation will take this figure from just over one million employees to 11 million employees. This legislation will not end domestic violence. This is a much, much bigger task and there is so much more to do but it is a very important step that will save lives, because no worker should ever have to choose between their safety and their income. No worker should ever have to choose between income and medical treatment. Every worker in Australia has the right to be safe at work and safe at home.

I want to thank the survivors and their advocates. I want to thank experts and frontline workers who have advocated for so long for this reform. I see that Samantha Parker is up there with her comrades and colleagues from the ASU in the gallery. I want to acknowledge the Australian Services Union, which represents frontline workers who help women fleeing domestic violence every day. Samantha Parker and her colleagues were there at the beginning, advocating and arguing for this reform, and they have been joined by many others. I want to acknowledge all those stakeholders, those willing people who put their shoulders to it and built the case for this bill year after year, decade after decade.

Preventing family violence is everyone's business. It is long overdue for the Australian government to show leadership in this way, and I am so proud to support this bill.