Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is a historic day as we debate this historic bill before us. It's historic because the fight for the measures contained within this bill has been raging for a long time, from frontline workers, our union movement, gender equality advocates, civil society and women. It's historic because it will make a real difference to the lives of some of those in our community whose voices have been silenced, unheard, for far too long.

The statistics of family violence are too familiar to us all. We know that, on average, one woman every 10 days in Australia is killed by an intimate partner. Women aren't the only victims of family and domestic violence—of course not—but we know that, disproportionately, they experience family violence so much more than men. Since the age of 15, approximately one in four women will have experienced at least once instance of violence by an intimate partner. These statistics are horrific, but of course they're not just statistics. I'm sure almost all of us in this chamber would know someone who's experienced family violence or would have experienced family violence themselves. These are people we know, people we love and people we care for.

While this bill doesn't stop or solve family violence it will make a difference. It introduces 10 days of paid leave for employees to use to deal with the impacts of family and domestic violence. Critically, it's paid at the rate of pay you would actually earn, whether in full-time employment, part-time employment or casual employment. This is critically important—it's a really important part of this bill—because, to start with, women are more likely to be the victims of violence and they're also more likely to be those in casual work. We don't ever want women in Australia to be in the situation where they have to choose between a day's pay, between their livelihood, and between getting help and getting out of a dangerous situation. Fundamentally, that's what this bill is about: supporting those in our community at a critical point in their life, when this support could be at least life-changing but probably live-saving.

I'm really proud of this bill and I'm really proud to be part of a government that prioritises women's safety and equality. Of course it doesn't do everything. The National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children was released last week. This outlines a clear blueprint for the next 10 years. This plan contains an ambitious target, as it should, to end gender based violence in one generation. It also includes tangible actions, including addressing gender discrimination, implementing prevention strategies, embedding effective early intervention approaches and building the frontline sector workforce to ensure women and children can access tailored and culturally safe support no matter where they live. These are some real, tangible measures to be rolled out alongside the bill before us.

But make no mistake: just because this bill doesn't do everything it doesn't mean it won't make a tremendous difference, and it doesn't mean that it won't change lives and save lives. So I very much commend the bill to the Senate and I would hope it is something that we can all get behind and support.