Susan Lamb (Longman, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Fair Work Amendment (Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Bill 2018 and of course stand in support of the amendments moved by the member for Gorton. This bill has been on the Notice Paper for a number of weeks now, although it's been relegated to the end of the day every single time, so I'm pleased to see it's now being debated. It's incredibly disappointing, though, that we have one government member speaking on this bill. I hope something can change in the time before we adjourn.

One woman a week is killed as a result of domestic violence. There's no question that this is a national crisis. The ABS estimates that two out of every three women who experience domestic violence are currently in the workforce. To me, it would just make sense that, to implement a truly comprehensive response to domestic and family violence, we must legislate a workplace response. For our government and for the business community, this won't be a world-changing adjustment, but, for an individual who is trying to escape an abusive relationship or abuse in the family home, this could really change their world—obviously for the better.

While the government has been putting off debating this bill—as I said, it's been on the paper for a number of weeks—more and more businesses have already begun writing paid domestic violence leave into their employment contracts. This is at least in part, of course, due to the leadership role of the trade union movement, who have stood up for workers during bargaining and called for change. Unions like United Voice, the CFMMEU and the Finance Sector Union, just to name a few, have been strong champions for victims of domestic violence.

Before entering this place, for a number of years I was an organiser with United Voice working with early childhood educators, trying to get the best and fairest outcome for those workers in that sector. I remember that, back then, for many employers the concept of paid domestic violence leave was still fairly foreign. This was something I knew to be important not just because it made sense but because I'd been listening to workers and heard what they thought was vital in a workplace agreement. When you speak to workers, they don't just talk about their hourly rate. They don't just talk about health and safety. They share their stories and what's important to them and their families.

I also note that yesterday the member for Fairfax, on the MPI, stood up here in the chamber and said his government was here representing people and yet Labor was here representing unions. Well, I'd like to remind the member for Fairfax what, in fact, a union is: it's a collective of workers, of course, and workers, of course, are people.

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