Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I might just take a moment to draw the chamber's attention to one of the reports that has been tabled today, which is the review of the family and domestic violence leave, which was supported by this parliament during this term of the parliament. This, of course, was the very first piece of legislation passed by this parliament under the Albanese government and addresses a very important right that was missing in Australian legislation beforehand. I think everyone understands the scourge of family and domestic violence that we continue to see in this country. It's an area that this government has taken a wide degree of action on. I want to recognise the efforts in particular of the Minister for Women, Senator Gallagher, and the Minister for Social Services, Minister Rishworth, who have done an immense amount of work in this space more generally. Of course, I also want to recognise the efforts of so many women's organisations, in particular, and domestic violence organisations as well, who have lobbied so hard for so long to see real action taken to deal with the scourge of family and domestic violence that we see far too much in this country.

The purpose of the change to the law that this parliament made was to provide for the first time in Australian history a legislated right to 10 days of family and domestic violence leave for all Australian workers. The reason for providing that leave was that all of the evidence demonstrated that too often women, as the major gender that experiences family and domestic violence, were effectively having to make a choice between their safety and their paycheque because of the lack of leave provided for women to deal with the consequences of family and domestic violence. We commissioned a review to examine how that new leave entitlement was going. What it found in essence was that, for those who have made use of the leave provision, it has provided a very important right to workers who have been experiencing family and domestic violence to obtain the support that they require without losing pay and without fearing the loss of their job.

However, the review also did find that there is some work to be done yet in terms of making workers—in particular women—aware of this new right that they have. That's something, of course, the government will take on board and do some more work on to ensure that all Australian workers are aware of this new right that exists for people who have experienced family and domestic violence to take paid leave without fearing losing their pay or their job. That is an important right that has been provided. We do want to make sure it allows workers to not only retain their pay and retain their job but also retain the ability to do something and take more action to seek the support that they require to deal with family and domestic violence.

As I say, this is one of a number of things that our government has undertaken to improve the position of victim-survivors of domestic violence. It is still far too widespread in our community. We all, of course, see the tragic murders of too many women at the hands of their husbands, boyfriends, close family members and other relatives. It's something that we do want to stop, and providing this leave entitlement, we think, is an important way of assisting victim-survivors. It's very pleasing to see this review find that it is working very well, at least for those who are aware of that right.

I should also draw attention to the fact that the submissions to this review indicate this is a right that has very broad support across the community. I think it's well understood that in the industrial relations field there are often areas where we see disagreement between employers and unions. What this review found was that, across the board, there is very strong support for this leave, so it's terrific to see that the need for this leave entitlement is something that employers, unions and workers can all agree is really necessary.

I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.