Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On average, one woman is killed by her current or former partner every 10 days in Australia. We hear this statistic all the time, and I fear it has lost its ability to shock. But we should be shocked. On average, one woman is killed by her current or former partner every 10 days in Australia. We should be shocked, we should be appalled, we should be marching in the streets. One woman is murdered every 10 days. These women are not just statistics. They are human beings with feelings and potential. They have families and friends. They have hopes and dreams—all ended by violence.

Sitting behind that statistic are even more shocking statistics. Over the age of 15, approximately one in four, or 25 per cent of all women, have experienced at least one incident of violence by an intimate partner. For women with disability, 40 per cent have experienced violence by an intimate partner. Indigenous women are 35 times as likely to be hospitalised due to family and domestic violence as non-Indigenous women. This is a national shame and something which there can be no justification.

As the former CEO of the women's homelessness service Catherine House, I did a lot of speaking on the subject of family and domestic violence. Without fail, at the end of every speech, there would be a woman who would hang back—sometimes more. Once everyone had left, they'd come up to me and share their personal experience. Women in community groups, business women, women in corporate settings, women in professional networking groups, women at fundraising events, women at sporting events—every single place. Everyone in this place would know someone affected by family and domestic violence, whether they know it or not. Statistically, there are women working here who are also subject to family and domestic violence—25 per cent on average. It can and does happen to everyone.

This bill represents a crucial step in the fight against family and domestic violence. This bill will provide Australians experiencing family and domestic violence—women and men, no matter where they work or what industry they are in—access to 10 days of paid domestic and family violence leave. By amending the Fair Work Act, it enshrines in our key industrial relations framework a minimum standard that will help Australia avoid the choice between poverty and the safety of themselves and their children. It will ensure no one has to choose between losing their job and escaping a violent situation. While we know that family and domestic violence occurs against both men and women, women are overwhelmingly the victims.

In my previous work as CEO of Catherine House, a support service for South Australian women experiencing homelessness, I learned that there are two very clear overarching principles when it comes to the issue—safety and poverty. We always hear, 'But why didn't she leave?' The most dangerous time for women and children is when they leave. Victim-survivors need time to plan, time to leave safely, time to arrange the support of friends, family and broader support networks, time to figure out where to stay and time to attend appointments with services or lawyers. Beyond time, they need resources, which is where avoiding poverty is so important. Fifty per cent of the women coming to Catherine House experiencing homelessness listed family and domestic violence as a contributing factor, and this will help avoid more women falling into poverty by helping them to take action safely, with the added protection of knowing they will not lose their job.

For many women, this bill and the opportunity provided by 10 days of paid leave in instances of family and domestic violence will be the difference between staying and leaving. And, as we know, for too many that can mean life or death. It will give women greater flexibility, options and time to plan without losing income—or worse, losing their job. For many women it is simply impossible to leave safely without this kind of protection. I also know that this bill will go some way towards helping women avoid falling into absolute crisis when they decide to leave. When I asked those who work in the sector what this legislation would mean for them, they told me that the financial security it will deliver will empower women to better plan and avoid so much chaos, and will ultimately deliver safer outcomes for women and children.

This form of leave already exists in some workplaces, successfully implemented in businesses big and small. It's not a new thing. It’s not untried. By enabling their workers to maintain an income and maintain their employment while they navigate this difficult and dangerous time, employers are ensuring that they retain their skilled workers through supporting them. They are also literally saving lives. It's time when they can tell their partner that they're off work but can, for example, look for housing or attend appointments with support services and legal support—all without diminishing their escape fund, which is so important to enable somebody to leave an abusive relationship.

This amendment to provide for 10 days of leave is fundamentally a recognition of the complexities and the impacts of violence on women and children. It's recognition that it is not as simple as up and leaving a violent relationship. Paid domestic violence leave is a necessary precondition, a bare minimum, for us to thrive as a community and as a society. If we are going to do something about those terrible statistics—one woman killed every 10 days—then we need to enable them to escape violent situations.

A report authored by feminist trailblazer and researcher Dr Anne Summers, titled concisely The choice: violence or poverty, provides some stark statistics. Of the 275,000 women who suffered physical or sexual violence from their current partner each year, 81,700 had returned. On average, it takes a woman seven goes before she successfully leaves. Financial insecurity is an enormous factor constraining women's choices, forcing them to remain in or return to dangerous relationships. Indeed, in Dr Summers's report, she writes that 25 per cent of the further 90,000 women who wanted to leave but didn't stated explicitly that lack of financial support and independence was the primary reason they were unable to leave.

We know that staying in an abusive situation, not by choice in any meaningful sense of the word but out of necessity, can have very real and horrifying consequences. Violence often escalates over time. Women who do not leave also face a social stigma that can further isolate them from family, friends and other supports. According to a 2017 survey of community attitudes towards violence against women that is included in Dr Summers's report, 32 per cent of respondents believe that a woman who does not leave her partner is partly responsible for the abuse. That is horrifying—that the victim would be held responsible for their own abuse. That is why legislation and policy initiatives like this are so important: to give women choices—real choices. The financial support provided through the passing of this legislation is one step towards supporting people to safely leave abusive relationships while enabling them to retain some sense of financial stability.

It's an absolute core Labor value that all Australians have the right to be safe at work, and this bill is a recognition that that crucial notion does not go far enough. We must ensure that a worker never has to choose between their safety and their income, and it's truly unacceptable that millions of workers in Australia, from all sorts of industries and all walks of life, still face this cruel choice. We must be absolutely clear about this. Protection of only some workers is not enough; we must protect all.

Some opposite have argued that this bill should exclude casual workers—and keep in mind that casual and part-time workers are already by definition in insecure, piecemeal or unstable work, and they are more likely to already be in a financially precarious situation. We know that the casualisation of the workforce affects women more than men. Women are also often working in the lower-paid caring professions. Dr Summers's report states that 30 per cent of those women who experienced domestic or family violence were in part-time or casual work, so they already face enormous challenges in building up the kind of financial independence they need to leave abusive partners. Excluding casuals altogether would leave 2.6 million employees, 22.8 per cent of all employees, without this vital protection. Those most financially vulnerable would be left without this option. Do those opposite really not think that these women deserve or require paid domestic leave? We know that they exist.

The government has consulted widely on this bill. The new entitlement for 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave will start on 1 February 2023 for businesses other than small businesses. Small businesses, those with fewer than 15 employees, will have an extra six months, until 1 August, in recognition of the limited HR capabilities in some small businesses.

I look forward to the day when that statistic of one woman murdered every 10 days is a distant memory. I look forward to the day when girls growing up in Australia don't face the possibility that they might become one of the 25 per cent of all women assaulted by an intimate partner, and when this is not the lived experience of so many of our sisters, mothers, daughters, friends, work colleagues and, indeed, ourselves. This bill is a step towards ending domestic and family violence.

I'd also like to knowledge that we've had the murder of a woman in Boothby in the last week, 51-year-old Louise Hughes. She was a mother of two and, I believe, a grandmother, who worked in real estate in a local area. A neighbour has been arrested. I'd like to offer my condolences to her family, friends and work colleagues for this absolutely shocking event in their lives, and my deep sorrow about the death of this woman.

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