Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Family violence is a stain on this nation's character that we, as a parliament, do not do nearly enough to address, and I'm sorry to say that this bill, the Fair Work Amendment (Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Bill 2018, also does not do enough to address it. The resources needed to address family violence and its horrendous impacts continue to be disgracefully inadequate. This parliament managed in one day to pass into law a bill to get tough on strawberry vandals. That decision showed what can be done with political will and bipartisanship. If strawberries require this parliament's urgent attention, surely the women and children of this nation deserve no less.

I rise today to support this bill. It will go some way to help people suffering from family violence, but let's not pretend it goes nearly far enough. While this chamber is, I assume, unanimously supporting this measure, the government continues to refuse to commit to reinstating $18 million that would ensure the survival of the Keeping Women Safe in their Home program. That is $18 million to keep women safe. It should not even be a question. Last week the Prime Minister told this House that considerations for the funding were going through the 'proper processes'. The notion of proper process would be fair enough, except this is a government that ignores proper process at the drop of a hat. Did the government follow proper process when it handed half a billion dollars to a foundation to manage the Great Barrier Reef or when it flagged moving our embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem?

It leaves a sour taste in the mouth of those suffering family violence to know this is a government that demands that the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed for the expenditure of $18 million that keeps women and children safe but abandons proper process for spending hundreds of millions of dollars on reefs and embassies. Talk about priorities! In this term of the parliament, we have approved billions of dollars in expenditure for defence, hundreds of millions of dollars for national security and tens of millions of dollars to upgrade security at this very Capital Hill, all in the name of keeping Australians safe, yet it is $18 million to keep women safe at home that has the government saying, 'Steady on, we need to take a look at whether this is affordable.' I am pleased, therefore, that a Labor government, if elected at the next election, will reinstate this vital funding.

I would like to acknowledge the work done by the group Our Watch, which last week visited this parliament in order to educate parliamentarians about the crisis of violence that is engulfing this country. Our Watch is dedicated to driving the big changes that are needed to arrest family violence: culture, behaviour and, importantly, gender and power imbalances. I urge all in this House to log on to ourwatch.org.au to read and learn about the violence that blights homes in every suburb, every city and every town across all socioeconomic backgrounds and incomes. It is this violence that kills women and children. Yes, I know that men suffer from family violence too, but the vast majority of victims and survivors are women. The vast majority of perpetrators are men. This should not be allowed to be diverted into a 'but men suffer too' argument.

We have three weeks to go before 2018 draws to a close. So far, more than 60 women have been violently killed by men in Australia this year, with the killer in many cases being the victim's current or former partner or a man otherwise known to her. That is more than 60 women—more than one a week. It is not just unacceptable; it is criminally negligent that it has been allowed to get anywhere near this, when we have the tools and the knowledge to save lives. We just need the political will.

The government and the opposition agree that keeping Australians safe is one of the most important duties any government has, which explains the billions of dollars we invest in intelligence, national security and defence. There is little quibbling about this expenditure. There is an acknowledgement across the board that it is required to keep Australians safe from present and future threats. But, when more than 60 women are killed a year in this country, we have to ask ourselves whether we are doing enough to keep Australians safe, not just from external and potential threats but from threats who live amongst us, in our homes, sharing our beds. If terrorists were murdering 60 women a year in Australia, we would move heaven and earth to stop the carnage.

This is not a new crisis. It has not crept upon us unawares. Five years ago, the Chair of Our Watch, former senator Natasha Stott Despoja, called violence against women a national crisis. As she notes, five years on, the number of women who have been killed has increased. It has got worse, and I do fear that, without strong political leadership to drive cultural change amongst boys and young men, it may well get worse still.

There is a growing movement across the Western world of right-wing men's groups that are rooted both in racism and in misogyny. Some are in lock step with increasingly prominent Nazi movements, emboldened by mainstream conservative parties adopting some of their platforms. One of these far Right groups is the Proud Boys, formed in the US by an objectionable individual called Gavin McInnes, who openly boasts of being violent and antisocial and who revels in notoriety. His followers identify themselves as 'proud Western chauvinists'. In my speech, I've got some notes here about just how objectionable he is, but I'm pleased to say that, in between my writing this speech and coming into this parliament, the government has decided not to allow him a visa into this country, so I'm pleased about that. He is somebody who has no place in this country, spreading his hateful manifesto.

Nationally, we know that one in four women will experience emotional abuse by a current or former partner from the age of 15. One in five women experience sexual violence from the age of 15. One in two women experience sexual harassment during her life. On average, one woman a week is murdered by a current or former partner. Intimate partner violence is the single greatest health risk factor for women aged 25 to 44. Family violence against women is the single largest driver of homelessness for women. A history of family violence is a common factor in child protection cases and is the cause of a police call-out once every two minutes. And we know that the cost to business of violence against women and their children was, according to KPMG, an estimated $1.9 billion in 2015-16.

Recently, I attended an event in New Norfolk, a town in my electorate, organised by Jessica, a young woman who spoke openly about her own exposure to family violence. She spoke about how isolating it was to keep her emotional and physical abuse secret. She spoke about the time her partner kidnapped her at gunpoint. Fortunately for Jessica, her story has a happy ending, but she came close to being another woman killed at the hands of a man she had called her partner, another face on a chart filled with too many faces already.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates that two out of three women who experience family violence are in the workforce. This statistic presents both challenges and opportunities, but most of all it presents a requirement for government, for employers and for work colleagues to think differently about their roles and their responsibilities to each other. There is no doubt that a comprehensive response to family violence requires a workplace response, which brings us to this bill.

The bill before the House, the Fair Work Amendment (Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Bill 2018, has been written on the advice of the Fair Work Commission Full Bench decision which earlier in the year expressed the opinion that all employees should have access to unpaid family and domestic violence leave. In short, the bench decided to provide five days of unpaid leave per annum to all employees, including casuals, who are experiencing family violence. The full bench considered a number of matters relating to access to the entitlement and decided that the unpaid leave entitlement will apply to all employees, will be available in full at the commencement of each 12-month period rather than accruing progressively during a year of service, will not accumulate from year to year and will be available in full to part-time and casual employees—that is, not prorated. The full bench also decided not to require employees to consume their available paid leave entitlement before accessing unpaid family violence leave.

This bill is a step in the right direction, but it has taken too long to come before the parliament, and it certainly does not go far enough. I note that the minister first committed to unpaid leave at the end of March but did not see fit to introduce this bill until last month. That is eight months that this bill has been languishing. We dealt with strawberry vandalism in one day, but it has taken eight months for the government to bring women's safety to the attention of the parliament. This bill should provide for paid family violence leave, not unpaid. That is why I am supporting Labor's amendment to this bill. Women and men who need time off work to deal with family violence should not have to worry about losing financial security. We know that the most dangerous and unpredictable time a woman faces is when she decides to leave a violent relationship. She will often need to find new accommodation, arrange security, access an apprehended violence order from the police, seek treatment for injuries and perhaps attend court appearances. When a woman works, it is difficult to fit these necessary aspects in, particularly if she is doing so covertly for her own safety. If a woman needs to take time off work to do these vital things to keep herself and her children safe, she should not have to worry about losing pay or her job to do so.

The need for paid leave has been recognised by Australian unions for some time, and they have been working hard for its inclusion in awards and enterprise bargaining agreements. I was proud to stand with Unions Tasmania and the ACTU to back their campaign for 10 days of paid family violence leave. Like many of my colleagues, I signed a pledge to work towards it, and it is a pledge that those of us on this side of the House will deliver if we are elected to government. Once again, just as with child labour laws, the eight-hour day, safe working conditions, minimum wages, penalty rates and superannuation, it is Australian unions that are leading the important and necessary social changes that improve Australian lives. Once again, it is the Liberal Party standing in the way, claiming that it is too hard or too expensive, that it will lead to ruination and the end of days.

We have been here before. The Liberals' kneejerk reaction is always to oppose progress rather than embrace it. Paid family leave is now available at a number of worksites across my electorate, including Able Australia in New Norfolk, Anglicare in Perth, May Shaw in Swansea, and the New Norfolk, Campbelltown, Oatlands, Deloraine and St Helens hospitals. There have been no reports of access to this leave being abused. I am pleased to report that a number of councils in my electorate also include family violence provisions in their EBAs, including Meander Valley, Break O'Day, Glamorgan Spring Bay, Central Highlands, Derwent Valley, Southern Midlands and Sorell.

No-one is keen to use it, but the inclusion of 10 days of paid family violence leave is vital. It provides an essential safety net. Research by the Australia Institute in 2016 estimated that domestic violence leave wage payouts will be equivalent to less than one fiftieth of one per cent—that is, 0.02 per cent—of existing payrolls. That is a very, very small—infinitesimal—price to pay for women's safety. That study also found that the costs to employers associated with the payouts are likely to be largely or completely offset by benefits to employers associated with the provision of paid family violence leave, including reduced turnover and improved productivity.

Last year Labor announced that, if elected, a Bill Shorten Labor government will introduce 10 days of paid family violence leave into the National Employment Standards. We remain disappointed that the government has refused to join us in this important commitment. It would be so much better if the Australian people could see a bipartisan commitment on this very important matter. For many women, their workplace is a primary support mechanism. Their work colleagues, often their employer, may be the most important support they have when suffering family violence. For others, going to work can be an escape. The thought of losing a job affects not just financial security but also social support. We need to do more. If Labor is elected, we will do more.

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