Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

While the minister is seeking advice, I will chime in because I fear that otherwise I might miss my opportunity entirely, given that we hit the hard marker at 12.15. Can I just point out that the Greens will be supporting both of the amendments that the government has just moved. One is a technical fix that relates to the National Employment Standards. The other is an important change about pay slips, which the opposition is now asking about. We think that nicely treads the line between respecting the safety and privacy of workers who are experiencing family and domestic violence and maintaining the need to call this 'family and domestic violence leave', which will help to destigmatise the fact that this is rampant in society—and we need to change that. For the record, we won't be supporting the Jacqui Lambie Network amendments, because we don't agree that we should call this something that it is not. This is not emergency leave; it is family and domestic violence leave.

I'm being handed at this very moment a fresh amendment which I have not had the chance to digest. I'm told that the government is talking with the Jacqui Lambie Network about this amendment. I look forward to the opportunity to actually read that amendment and form a view on whether or not it's a useful change in relation to protecting women and ensuring that women don't have to choose between their job and their safety.

While I'm on my feet I might briefly outline the fact that I'll be moving our amendments en bloc. We had hoped to get this bill done in the last parliamentary sittings and did our level best to deliver that, but it looks like now we won't get the chance until perhaps later tonight, when maybe there won't be opportunities for speaking. In very brief form, we are moving some minor amendments which relate to the fact that the leave should be available not just to people who are experiencing violence but to people who have experienced family and domestic violence. We know it can take years to get the court processes to complete—often in an unsatisfactory manner, I might add—and we need to make sure also that it is clear that an employee can access leave to undertake activities that are not just inconvenient for them to do on work time, as the current bill proposes, but are unsafe for them to do other than on work time. That is another of our amendments.

We've also expanded out the list of things in the note that employees specifically can ask for leave for in order to stay safe. We're moving an important amendment that relates to having an additional four days of unpaid leave on top of the 10 days of paid leave, acknowledging that it can take a long time to do the things you need to do, assuming you have the resources to do them, which is why this bill is important and also why funding for frontline services is very important. We'll be moving that amendment as well; it gets us closer to best practice.

On that resourcing issue, my second reading amendment went to the fact that this bill will increase demand on frontline services. We were hoping that, in last night's budget, there would be an increase in funding for frontline services. There was a partial indexation. That is not a funding increase. There is already unmet demand for frontline services and prevention work and healing work. There is already an unmet need, and this bill, which is crucial, will increase that need. We needed to see money in the budget last night for frontline services to keep women safe and to stop the incredible number of deaths that are happening. But, in the interest of time, we didn't move that one to a vote, mistakenly thinking that we might be able to pass this bill in a timely fashion.

My final amendment, which I will move when my turn comes, relates to making sure that there can be no discrimination or unfair dismissal as a result of an employee seeking to access family and domestic violence leave. When the time comes, probably at about 11 o'clock tonight with no chance to speak, I will be commending these amendments, and I would urge all parties in this parliament to deal with this bill promptly so that small businesses have the time to change whatever operations they need to change to undertake their obligations. I note with pleasure that there was an amount allocated last night in the budget to enable support for small businesses to adopt this new practice.