Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is a bill that's going to save lives. It's going to save women's lives; it's going to save children's lives. The really key thing here is that every employer can be a part of saving someone's life, potentially, when this bill is enacted—whether that person is a permanent full-time worker, a part-time worker or a casual. We see people dismayed at the loss of life that occurs; well, here is something tangible that every employer can be a part of and will be required to be a part of so that lives can be saved.

The Fair Work Amendment (Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Bill 2022 is about providing 10 days domestic violence leave. That means leave that allows you to do some of the endless lists of things that are required as you are either preparing to leave, or are leaving, an abusive partner. Front-line workers—let's be very clear—have been key to the success in raising awareness about what's needed here because they have not just had the fortitude to work with women and children who are fleeing violent situations and to support them through their journey but also advocated exceptionally hard, over a very long time, to ensure that people like me are aware of what's involved. What they tell us is that leaving a violent relationship, even planning to leave a violent relationship, involves time and money.

People need to find somewhere to live, and that is not an easy feat. In fact, for anybody, even in the best of circumstances right now, that takes time. They need to find new schools for kids. They need to go and meet with people around a range of issues, and all of that takes time. These things so often need to happen at the same time that work commitments occur. They can't always happen out of working hours. This paid leave will mean people no longer need to make a choice between safety and earning money—because, right now, that's the choice people have. They go, 'I want to be safe and my kids need to be safe, but that means I won't earn money this week.' That's what we can fix. There are so many problems in this place where we say, 'They're so big; how can we tackle them?' Well, here is a really tangible, practical step that we can take and that we are taking, and we really hope that those opposite support us on this one.

The principle behind this leave entitlement is really simple. It is about the rate that people would have been paid had they not taken leave. It's not just their base rate of pay; it's about what they would normally have received for that day's work—whether they are a permanent worker or a casual. What would they have received that day? Once this law is in place, the 10 days leave will be provided upfront from the day that you start, allowing immediate access to the full entitlement of the leave. Again, there's no waiting period. There's no having to wait in a home with an abusive partner. You can actually go as soon as you are ready to go. This is about empowering women to be able to do this.

A couple of things have been raised with me as I have been talking with workers in this field about what a difference this would make. One of the really key things is the detail and thought that has gone into this bill. I heard comments from those opposites like, 'It might need some more thought.' This is an extraordinarily detailed piece of legislation and—if my memory serves me right—there is a 52-page document that goes through a lot of the detail.

Another thing that has been raised with me is whether it is going to be noted on a payslip that domestic violence leave was taken. There is no requirement in this legislation for it to appear on a payslip. An employer can quite rightly ask for evidence of the circumstance. An employer has the capacity to do that. It might be a police report or some other sort of document that indicates the circumstances the woman finds herself in. But there is no requirement to record it on a piece of paper. That makes a real difference for women who are planning to leave but who are under the control of a partner who looks at their payslip, who looks at why they did not get a loading for that day and asks, 'Why weren't you there that day?' It takes all that out of it. There won't be any change in what the normal payslip would be, nor will there be any indication on the payslip that the leave has been accessed. That is a level of detail and thought that has gone into making sure that this saves lives and that there are no unintended consequences.

One of the things I recognise, having had my own small business for 25 years and having grown up in my dad's small business, is that small business will need some time to adjust to this. That is why this legislation provides for around 12 months so that we can work with small businesses and ensure that they are very clear about what the responsibilities and the requirements are and what a difference it will potentially make to their employees.

I want to give an example of what a small business in my community did in recent years. One of their workers was a victim of family and domestic abuse and that person wanted to leave the area. This was a valuable employee—and, quite frankly, right now every employee is of value to the business they work in—and this employer, who I will not disclose, deliberately supported their worker several years ago so that they could relocate to another city but could maintain their employment. This was pre COVID. This is before working from distance was a much more normal thing to do. That is the level of support that employer game. And they are not alone; small businesses are supporting their workers, because they value their workers, as they go through traumatic domestic violence situations. But bigger employers are also doing this. Something like 70 per cent of employers already have paid domestic violence leave in their agreements.

We recognise that there will need to be some lead time, particularly for small businesses that have a number of unique challenges. We recognise that cash flow challenges and not having a full human resources capacity to administer a new leave entitlement, especially around such a sensitive issue, will provide some challenges, and some support for those businesses is essential. So it will be a phased-in commencement, with most businesses having around six months but others closer to 12 months. I would ask small businesses to think about what they can actually do to change someone's life in these circumstances—not just to change their life but potentially to save their life. We are making it as easy, clear and simple as possible to be able to be implemented, and I welcome feedback from any of my small businesses about support that might be useful in going through these processes.

I said earlier that this legislation has been informed by the frontline workers. In my own community, that's people like those who work at WILMA, part of DV West Blue Mountains. It's the feedback over many years from services like the Blue Mountains Women's Health and Resource Centre who have worked with women escaping domestic violence for many, many years. I want to thank them for the work they do, and I particularly want to thank the members of the ASU, who, from the time I first stood as a candidate back in 2010, have talked to me and helped me have a deeper understanding of what would be practical and useful for the women they support. I hope that they get to see the benefits of this before any of us because they're the ones on the front line who try and find a way forward for so many women. There's never enough support. There are always too many women in need. The Richmond Women's Cottage is another example of this. Every one of my services tells me that COVID has meant a massive increase in women reaching out for help, and we know that the data is horrific.

From the age of 15, approximately one in four women experience violence by an intimate partner. That's what the data tells us: one in four. First Nations women are 32 times more likely than non-Indigenous women to be hospitalised due to family and domestic violence, so we see yet another level of trauma there. Everyone in this place should already know that, on average, one woman is killed by her current or former partner every 10 days in Australia. That's something that has been brought to the attention of this parliament multiple times, and it's the sort of fact that we should know and should not need to have repeated. They're the facts that inform this piece of legislation, and it wouldn't be happening without those frontline workers, so I want to finish by thanking them for what they do year in, year out.

I recognise that there's a lot of work we have to do in that area. I know from recent discussions with the Blue Mountains Women's Health and Resource Centre that the need for a trauma informed approach is absolutely vital. Unfortunately, our current Medicare system doesn't support that. It doesn't make it easy to do the holistic approach that is needed to bring together all the different pieces that help someone move from a place of danger to a place of safety and then build a new life. So they're the sorts of issues we're dealing with. It's great to have this piece of legislation moving through the House and I look forward to it being passed, but there are many things that we need to do as we go forward so that we can look back and say that this parliament made a difference and see the statistics start to shift as women's and children's lives are saved because of what this place has done.

See this speech in context