Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's a pleasure to rise in this House and to speak. It's always an honour, but it's such a privilege today when I have a school from my local community sitting up in the gallery watching me give this speech. My only hope is that the improvements we're able to make here for these year 6 students are not things that we're still talking about 20 years from now.

The irony of giving this speech on this particular amendment to the Fair Work Amendment (Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Bill 2018 is not lost on me, and giving it on day No. 5 during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence is also a poignant reminder of why we still need this and the 16 days of activism.

For too long impunity, silence and stigma have allowed violence against women to escalate to pandemic proportions. One in three women worldwide experience gender based violence. The time for change is here and now. In recent years, the voices worldwide of survivors and of activists through campaigns such as Me Too, Time's Up, Ni Una Menos, 'Not one more Niki', Balance Ton Porc and others have reached a crescendo that can no longer be silenced anymore. Advocates understand that while the names and contexts may differ across geographic locations, women and girls everywhere are experiencing extensive abuse and their stories need to be brought to light.

Having to stand here and advocate for this change to our National Employment Standards is heartbreaking. When we know better, we do better. I don't want to be here for discussions anymore. I'm tired of the talk; it is cheap and it's time to make the change necessary. This is what I signed up for: the opportunity to make our country better and to give a voice to those who don't have one or who have temporarily lost the courage to use their own. I'm here to make that change—the change we have long been fighting for and the change that can save a woman's life right now.

We have the opportunity to create the legislation that will change those lives. It won't help those 63 women who have already been murdered at the hands of a partner or a male this year. We know that more than one woman a week is dying at the hands of a current or former partner, a person they once loved and trusted. The bill we're arguing about can save lives, and it's a serious matter, not to be trivialised by devaluing arguments such as, 'It's going to impinge on business,' or, 'It'll stop people getting employed because they'll be discriminated against,' or trying to say that unpaid leave is the same thing as paid leave.

The government has proposed an amendment to the National Employment Standards to provide all employees with unpaid leave. It doesn't touch the sides of what's actually needed. Victims have been heard; frontline workers' expertise has been recognised; and business, unions and organisations that deal with domestic violence each day have been recognised. Their message is clear: people who have experienced domestic violence need more support in their workplaces. That goes for all workplaces, in all industries and all sectors, whether that's here in the parliament, in a cafe or at the bank.

It has taken this government a long time to drag its feet even to where we are now to join this important discussion. But—credit where credit is due—I welcome them to the floor to debate it. We've moved them from complete and utter opposition into something that they consider themselves to be happy with now. They have slow-turning wheels, it seems though, and are too busy now talking about themselves as opposed to talking about the rest of the country and those who need paid leave when they exit a violent home. They made their big announcement to support unpaid leave back in March, and here we are in November—the peak time for violence in families—one week after the bill was finally introduced.

I just want to repeat that this is actually a life-and-death issue that we're standing here to debate. In those eight months, while we waited, 40 women and their children have died. If we were speaking about terrorism—which I don't doubt is equally important—would the government be dragged kicking and screaming to this reform? But they're still only halfway there, and I will not stand here and support a bill that is half-cocked. It is 10 days paid leave or just get out of the way. The lives of Australia's women are at stake.

Earlier this week, I rose in this place to move a motion on the UN day for the elimination of gendered violence, and I'm proud to rise in support of a campaign to end violence against women and girls. I shared my own personal story in this place two years ago in the hope that women and girls throughout Australia would know the strength and resilience you can have after the violence ends, and that anyone, no matter where they come from or their achievements in life, can have their life interrupted by violence perpetrated against them.

Taking the first step and removing yourself and your family from a domestic violence situation takes a great deal of courage. Logistically, it takes much more. There is so much you need to do, and you can't achieve much in five days unpaid leave after you have finally escaped from a frightening situation. How can you care for your children, find a new safe home, visit the local police station, attend court for an AVO, move kids to schools, get them into support, attend appointments with doctors, counsellors, psychologists—wherever you need to go? Five days unpaid leave will not support all of that.

In March 2018, the Fair Work Commission agreed to insert a clause into modern awards to provide for five days unpaid family and domestic violence leave. When this decision finally came into effect in August, two million award-reliant workers became entitled to unpaid leave. But, again, what use is unpaid leave when you need finances, you need security and you need the ability to go on as normal, or as close to normal as possible, in your day-to-day life?

I speak about sliding doors wedged open by crisis points, and we as a nation are at a crisis point. Domestic violence is a major factor in deaths in Australia. Last year, Sherele Moody won a Walkley Award for her brave coverage of domestic violence issues in Australia. She spoke of the 39 per cent of murders that were attributed to current or former partners or family members in one year alone. That's 39 per cent, a huge number, yet we're in here squabbling over giving people access to paid or unpaid leave. We also know the most dangerous place for a woman is in the company of her partner at home on a Saturday night, yet we have to fight to give women financial and job security during a crisis. I wonder: what more it will take? Our nation wants change. People are consuming the media around domestic violence and are clearly now standing up saying, 'This is not okay.' What is lacking is the will in this place, on the other side, to do something about it.

This year's Gold Walkley went to the podcast The Teacher's Pet. It was a true crime investigation series that gripped the nation in horror that a husband was able to get away with murdering his wife. As it was set in the 1980s, you would think we might have learned something from that devastation, but we continue to allow this to grip our country, and the statistics just continue to increase. We continue to be horrified at every report and every incident.

The government need to take a good hard look at themselves and this shameful suggestion of a bill. Could those opposite find suitable accommodation for their children in five days? The women in my electorate certainly can't. The women that I speak to each day, who come in for support, who come in for referrals and who come in for help, certainly cannot do that. In a fragile mental state, fearing for the safety of herself and her children, a woman will often reach this sliding-door moment very quickly. Maybe one incident escalated too far—sexual, physical, emotional or financial abuse tipped over. We know that violence against women in their home denies them and their children security and safety and destroys the foundation of their identity. At this sliding door, a woman will potentially have isolated herself in shame, reducing her sense of belonging and connection to her family, friends and community.

Emotionally completely damaged, a DV survivor may not have the visible scars, but there are certainly open wounds just below the surface that need the time to heal. Women who experienced abuse during childhood are 1.5 times more likely to experience all kinds of violence during adult life. For some, the workplace is their respite from home and, for some women, their workplace is their support mechanism. Their colleagues, sometimes their employer, may be the most important support they have in these situations. This moment is our government's sliding-door moment. They have opened it, they have peeked in and they have thrown women experiencing domestic violence a few bones. But that's not enough; we need the full 10 days of paid leave. Labor has committed to doubling that number provided by the government.

It is an appropriate time to be highlighting the necessity for real DV leave. It's not groundbreaking, and this is just the point. There is precedence from more empathetic governments around the world. Other jurisdictions have introduced paid DV leave, and Labor believes that Australia's federal workplace system should also, importantly, provide this leave.

The member for Sydney just talked about the statistics in Australia. Every Liberal state government in this country has now moved to allow for paid DV leave for their government workers. In July this year, the New Zealand government legislated paid family and domestic violence leave, guaranteeing 10 days paid leave for all workers who are experiencing violence and who need to escape. Many employers already also provide paid family and domestic violence leave to their workforce through their own enterprise agreements. More than 1,000 enterprise agreements approved under the Fair Work Act between 1 January 2016 and 30 June 2017 provide 10 or more days of paid DV and family leave. These companies include leaders in this space such as Carlton and United Breweries, Telstra, NAB, Virgin, IKEA, Qantas and Aldi. These employers and many others have paved the way and helped reduce the stigma that often accompanies DV. So too have Australia's unions campaigning for paid DV and family leave over many years, negotiating leave coverage in Australian workplaces. I would like to give a special mention to Sam Parker, a frontline worker in my electorate from the ASU who recently won an award to recognise her commitment and longstanding advocacy for the clients that she works on behalf of in my community of Lindsay.

We do not anticipate that there would be a significant uptake of 10 days paid leave, unlike the slurs that this bill is sometimes reduced to by those on the other side saying that people will somehow fake being in a situation just to get access to this leave. It's hardly a credible argument when most people who are actually in it wouldn't even own up to it or want to be in it. It's crucial that this leave is available for the women who need it. The economic impact of domestic violence is significant and affects every single person in this country. It is estimated at a cost of $22 billion each and every year. There is an absolute financial business case, if not a moral imperative from an empathetic and compassionate country standpoint.

A study by the Australian Institute found that the cost would be almost completely offset by the benefits to the employer, not limited to a reduction in turnover and higher productivity. Let's keep it in perspective: the cost is 5c per day, per worker to institute this into our agreements.

We have already reached a national crisis point. I'm not quite sure why parliaments around this country are not being convened for special sittings to deal with the epidemic that we face. How many more women and children must have their lives interrupted before this epidemic is addressed in a substantive and meaningful way? It has never been tolerable to allow this crisis to continue. We are a smart nation. We already know what needs to be done. What we don't have is the political will on the other side, the understanding or the desire to fix a problem facing half the nation's population, that being our women. We have leaders who are men in parliaments. Most of our parliaments still, sadly, are predominantly filled with men, who statistically are not likely to have been on the receiving end of family or domestic violence. If you haven't experienced it, it can be hard to understand it.

We know what needs to be done. Our experts and our communities tell us. The list is short, it's simple and it's common sense. It's time to fund women's crisis centres so when it's time to leave there is somewhere for women to go. It's time to support women through legal services and proper family court systems so when a woman does leave she isn't facing a flawed system. It's time to eliminate current behaviours that enable violence against women through education and through supportive programs that shift attitudes to create a society rooted in equality. It's time to ensure that men who are perpetrators are held to account by treating it as a criminal offence. No longer is it a private matter. It's time to give women access to this paid leave so when a woman does leave she can continue her employment and know that her job is secure. Unpaid leave and access to her own super does nothing to support a woman who needs to go.

It's time to end the gendered slurs in our workplaces and in our senior roles, and the use of them as a way to bring smart, clever, capable women undone. White Ribbon Australia's vision is that Australia is a nation that respects all women and a nation in which every woman is able to live in safety, free from all forms of men's abuse. Along with the UN 16 Days of Activism and Our Watch, we already have the tools we need to start addressing this. This is just one part. It's time this was a national priority of all levels of government. It's costing women their lives, many their future, and costing our nation $22 billion each year. It is time.

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