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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-02-21 Daily Xml
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Fair Work (Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 9 February 2023.)

Ms CLANCY (Elder) (11:14): I rise today in support of the Fair Work (Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Amendment Bill 2022 to amend the Fair Work Act 1994. I was proud to stand as a member of the Malinauskas Labor team during the state election, presenting a suite of progressive policies to make South Australia a better place. I, like the many other Labor women running for parliament, was grateful that within my team I had the leadership and guidance of our then shadow minister for women and the other compassionate women leaders already in our parliament, including our steadfast then deputy opposition leader.

This bill is fundamental to the commitment to women that we took to the election—a commitment focused on advancing gender equality and employing the power of government to bring an end to domestic violence. By introducing a new minimum employment condition for public sector and local government employees of 15 paid days of family and domestic violence leave each year, we are taking an important step toward fulfilling that commitment.

Currently, state system employees' entitlement to family and domestic violence leave is governed by an inconsistent set of policies, procedures and industrial instruments. Public sector employees are entitled to some paid leave through a determination of the Commissioner for Public Sector Employment, and local government employees are entitled to unpaid leave under their awards. This simply is not good enough. At their most vulnerable time, South Australians experiencing domestic and family violence should not be worried about their income. Workers experiencing domestic and family violence should not be made to choose between their safety and their financial security and the support they need. They should have both, they deserve both, and the successful passage of this bill will go a long way in ending that choice for many South Australians forever.

It is reforms such as these that make me proud to be Labor and proud to be union. We must pay credit to the tireless work of the Australian Services Union and the Australian Workers' Union for organising and campaigning to bring about this policy shift. Our movement is at its best when our party not only hears but listens to and actions the calls of the union movement. Our friends in the ASU and AWU have been calling for this reform for 15 years, leading the charge for family and domestic violence leave in the local government sector. I thank the members, organisers and officials of these unions, including Abbie Spencer and Peter Lamps, and indeed the broader union movement who have tirelessly advocated for this change.

I am proud to stand here as a member of the Malinauskas Labor government seeking to legislate that change. Legislating paid family and domestic violence leave empowers victims and survivors to seek the support they need and put in place any safeguards they may need. Family and domestic violence leave can be used for any purpose relating to a worker experiencing family and domestic violence. Such reasons could include, but are not limited to, seeking health care, legal or court proceedings, receiving legal advice, or finding alternative living arrangements. No-one should be made to choose between the safety and security these services provide and the economic security of work.

It is important to also point out that workers should not be punished for accessing these entitlements. That is why, unlike other leave entitlements, family and domestic violence leave will be calculated including any penalty rates or overtime payment that that worker would ordinarily receive, and this leave is available to all public sector and local government workers, whether they be full-time, part-time or casual.

This bill also provides additional protections for workers taking family and domestic violence leave. The last thing victim survivors need is a boss making life more challenging than it already is. Our amendments to the Fair Work Act include robust confidentiality requirements so that workers can rest assured that their personal information will be treated appropriately. Neither bosses nor human resources can copy or retain evidence provided by their workers to support a leave claim. Employers would also be prohibited under this reform from requesting information from an employee about the nature and extent of the domestic and family violence they are experiencing. This bill makes it a criminal offence for an employer to disclose information obtained through these processes without the consent of the employee to whom the information relates.

Enshrining a minimum 15 days of family and domestic violence leave each year for public sector and local government workers sends a clear message to the business sector, the labour market and local communities across our state. South Australia's biggest employers, the public sector and local government sector, do not and will not tolerate family and domestic violence.

As of this month, private sector workers are also entitled to 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave, thanks to legislation passed by the Albanese Labor government last year. It comes as no real surprise that it took a Labor government federally to also introduce this reform. With a look across the chamber today, it is abundantly clear that the Labor Party is not only the party for working people and families but also the party for women. While anyone can experience domestic and family violence, it is overwhelmingly women who do.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics tells us that one in four women have experienced intimate partner violence since the age of 15. One in four women have experienced emotional abuse by a current or former partner since the age of 15 and, on average, a woman is killed by a current or former intimate partner every 10 days. This cannot just be seen as a women's issue. We must all play a role in ending domestic and family violence. We must all continue to challenge attitudes and behaviours we see that consider women lesser than men. We must all work to ensure the next generation understands what respectful relationships look like. And we must all work together to dismantle the systems of power that allow some men to perpetrate this violence.

I acknowledge that men are also victims and survivors of domestic and family violence, and I acknowledge the men we lose to family and domestic violence. My focus is on women today because four in every five perpetrators of this violence are men, and this must end. Even if we locked up and threw away the key of every current and future non-male perpetrator of family and domestic violence today, we would only reduce these cases by 5 per cent. Men are the overwhelming perpetrators of this violence and the buck must stop with them.

I am bewildered by the men in the social media comments section of my colleagues and I who, at even the slightest allusion to the fact that women make up the overwhelming majority of victims of family and domestic violence, bring up often an entirely unrelated matter, which does disproportionately affect men. To these men, not all men, I ask this: where is your energy every other day?

Over the weekend before last, I stood alongside women from this place, business and community to honour and mourn all the women lost to violence in 2022. As it has been every year I have attended, it was a moving event. I love women coming together to support other women—women standing together—but, gosh, I hate that we have to. I hate that events like this have to happen. I dread the fact that we will be back on the steps of parliament next year at the same time doing the exact same thing.

When I had the privilege of working in this space at Women's Safety Services South Australia (WSSSA, as it is affectionately referred to), I would think about how sad it is that the organisation has to exist at all. There are well over 120 staff spread over six locations, all working to support women and children experiencing domestic and family violence—and that is just one organisation of many. Imagine a world where these organisations all become obsolete because, to put it bluntly, men choose to stop abusing women. It breaks my heart that that sounds like a complete fairytale because it should not.

Mr Speaker, do you know when the phrase, 'When is International Men's Day?' most searched online? It is 8 March—International Women's Day. I mention this fact because it is important. It is important to acknowledge that the systems of power and privilege that allow some men to perpetrate family and domestic violence are the same systems that keep us divided and perpetuate the myth that gender equality comes to the detriment of men. That is what we are seeking to change, and it is bills such as these that will go a long way for achieving gender equality for everyone.

In summary, all power to the men who walk beside us such as those I am often surrounded by in parliament—those who are supporting legislation such as this. While the majority of domestic and family violence perpetrators are men, the majority of men are not perpetrators. We can and we must all strive together to achieve gender equality.

I also wish to speak to another aspect of this bill, which seeks to amend the objects of the Fair Work Act to include promoting and facilitating gender equality, ensuring this is taken into account by the South Australian Employment Tribunal when determining future industrial entitlements.

The Malinauskas Labor government has a strong vision for achieving gender equality and one day bringing an end to domestic, family and sexual violence and all other forms of disrespect and discrimination that disproportionately affect women within our community. We are committed to working alongside service providers, women's organisations, women experiencing domestic violence, and other stakeholders to use all possible opportunities available to us to prevent and end domestic and family violence.

Already our state government has restored the $800,000 of funding over four years that was shamefully cut from the Women's Domestic Violence Court Assistance Service by the former state government. This vital service supports women with intervention order applications, variations and revocations, ending tenancies, and liaising with police to report breaches of intervention orders. We also reinstated the $1.2 million of funding to Catherine House that was, again, disgustingly cut by the former state government. Catherine House is an incredible service providing a safe and secure place for women experiencing homelessness, often as a result of family and domestic violence.

This bill is an example of our government's commitment to enacting a range of legislative change, preventive actions and policy, and options for recovery to help women stay safe. I stand proudly as a member of the Malinauskas Labor government, a state government that is unapologetically pro worker and relentlessly against family and domestic violence. Domestic and family violence has no place in our community. Everyone should feel and be safe. I commend this bill to the house.

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (11:26): I rise today to make a contribution and indicate that I am the lead speaker for the opposition in regard to this bill, the Fair Work (Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Amendment Bill 2022. I also indicate the opposition's support for this bill and, more broadly, this important issue, and indicate that the opposition wholeheartedly supports the intentions of the bill and the bill itself.

In short, the bill makes changes to state family and domestic violence leave arrangements to allow greater access and support, and also includes promotion and facilitation of gender equality as an object of the Fair Work Act. The minister, in her contribution, referenced the fact that addressing domestic and family violence is everybody's responsibility, and we most certainly concur with that. It is also true that nobody who experiences domestic and family violence should have to make the choice between securing their safety and accessing the support they need and their financial security.

I will keep my remarks short because, as I have indicated, the opposition fully supports this bill and does not wish to frustrate its passage in any way. This bill is another step forward towards preventing and ending the scourge of domestic and family violence. It adds to the bipartisan efforts of this parliament in addressing these issues.

Under the previous government, legislative reform measures included the introduction of changes to the Statutes Amendment (Domestic Violence) Act 2018. These included expanding the definition of abuse and increasing penalties for repeated and violent breaches of intervention orders, allowing police-recorded interviews with victims to be admissible evidence in court, and introducing a standalone criminal offence of non-fatal strangulation.

There were also amendments made to the Victims of Crime Act 2001, which removed the requirement for victims, including victims of domestic and family violence, to have any contact with the perpetrator when accessing compensation, as well as the abolition of the defence of provocation. New measures and programs that were introduced over the last four years include the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme trial, and we also funded the Department for Correctional Services to provide victims with information about a perpetrator's custody status and parole conditions. We also introduced the 24/7 DV crisis line, provided 40 new crisis accommodation beds, and provided funding to operate DV safety hubs in regional areas. These are just a few of the programs and initiatives implemented over those past four years.

We would like to go into committee briefly to tease out some operational questions and to provide some further context and guidance for both employers and employees. It is unfortunate that there is always more work to be done in this space, and this parliament, I am confident, is up to the challenge of continuing to make forward progress in this area.

I commend this important bill to the house, and look forward to its speedy passage through this place.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay—Minister for Tourism, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (11:30): I rise to speak on the Fair Work (Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Amendment Bill 2022. One in four women has experienced intimate partner violence since the age of 15. Domestic violence includes physical, sexual, emotional, financial and psychological abuse.

Sexual assault or sexual violence can include rape, sexual assault with implements and enforced prostitution, being forced to watch or engage in pornography and being forced to have sex with friends of the perpetrator.

Family violence is a broader term that refers to violence between family members, as well as violence between intimate partners. It involves the same sorts of behaviours as described for domestic violence. The term 'family violence' is the most widely-used term to identify the experiences of Indigenous people and many people within migrant communities, because it includes a broad range of marital and kinship relationships in which violence may occur.

Emotional and psychological abuse can include a range of controlling behaviours, such as control of finances, isolation from family and friends, continual humiliation, threats against children and threats of injury or death. This bill introduces a new minimum employment condition for public sector and local government employees of 15 days paid leave of family and domestic violence leave each year.

The bill also amends the objects of the Fair Work Act to include promoting and facilitating gender equity to ensure that this is taken into account by the South Australian Employment Tribunal when determining future industrial entitlements. This follows the 10 days of paid and family domestic violence leave introduced for private sector employees by the Albanese federal Labor government last year, which came into effect this month.

Family and domestic violence leave can be used for any purpose relating to the worker experiencing family and domestic violence, including but not limited to attending medical appointments, court proceedings, receiving legal advice and relocating residences.

This leave is an important safeguard to make sure that people attempting to escape family and domestic violence situations do not have to choose between their safety and independence on the one hand and their economic security on the other.

A report commissioned by the Australian Migrant Resource Centre, 'Working with New and Emerging Communities to Prevent Family and Domestic Violence Good Practice Resource', provided the following summary of how domestic family violence impacts culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities. I quote:

With the changing cultural and linguistic composition of Australia, the proportion of victims of domestic and family violence with immigrant and refugee backgrounds is likely to increase necessitating service systems that are culturally appropriate and able to implement targeted responses.

Disclosures and help-seeking can be complicated by factors relating to culture, religion, language, past refugee experiences, current settlement experiences, citizenship status, financial insecurity, a lack of access to appropriate services and an absence of family and friends for support.

Mainstream service systems are generally not equipped to respond adequately in relation to the specific needs of migrant and refugee women.

Exposure to family violence for migrant and refugee women can include extended family members, including family members living overseas and intersecting cultural factors, such as dowry systems [and forced marriage].

There are many organisations within my portfolio of multicultural affairs that are doing incredible, engaging and practical work with CALD communities to educate and prevent domestic violence, and I would like to take this opportunity to commend them. These include but are not limited to the Australian Migrant Resource Centre, the Australian Refugee Association, the Multicultural Communities Council of South Australia, Multicultural Youth South Australia, Relationships Australia and the Zahra Foundation.

This amendment to employment rights within the public and local government sectors sets an important standard for our broader community, including our CALD community. Enshrining this leave will send a clear message to our community and to workers and their families that their government and the biggest employer in this state, the public sector and local government, do not and will not tolerate domestic violence.

This bill that is before us today builds upon changes to legislation that have been within this house and within the federal sphere as well. It also builds upon the services and information that are provided to people. We talk about the court assistance service to help people when they are presenting to court and the services around emergency housing.

As a former minister for social housing, one of the most important things was the support of increased security on houses when the perpetrator was asked to leave and therefore the family could remain in the family home and the children could continue going to school and do all the things that they do. The perpetrator was removed, but the support of cameras and increased security was important to make sure that happened.

We have heard many members talk about the DV Disclosure Scheme, which the member for Elizabeth spoke about initially. As a former police officer, he had firsthand experience and knowledge. This is an important tool that we have for people who are worried about their relations in intimate situations with someone they have concerns about. It enables them to ask questions about previous crimes or situations that person has been in. We have tightened the breach of bail conditions as well.

All of these are important steps for us taking that cultural change to accept that we must do things differently. We must protect but, above all else, we must seek out awareness. We must talk about this openly. When I was growing up, this was something that was said: 'What happens down the street behind closed doors is their business.' People did not talk about family violence. People hid it because it was shameful. That is changing. We must step up and speak up.

Culturally, it comes down to how we view women in our society. A lot has changed over many years: the traditional role of a woman who stays home and looks after the family to women who are now participating in greater numbers than ever before in the workforce. But we still know there are issues. There is a lack of equality. The pay gap still exists, not to mention the negative or lower superannuation balances a woman faces on her retirement. Our greatest challenge is older women sliding into homelessness.

Are these all tied to domestic violence? Some are, some are not, but it goes to the nature of equality and equity for women. We must stand up and we must speak up. Just like the member for Elder, I thank the men who walk alongside us. The vast majority of men accept that things have changed, but it is how we speak, how we act and how we support women in the workplace, in the home and in all aspects of life that points to how we view them. This has got to change. It is changing, but there is certainly more work to be done.

As a former minister for the status of women, I had the opportunity of understanding this at a greater depth. I think ultimately we have some questions of culture to ask ourselves about the role of caring in our society. Traditionally, that is seen as a role for women, whether you are caring for younger children or older parents. Until we value that caring role more, this inequity will always be there.

In these situations where domestic violence exists in many different forms, people must feel they have the choice and are supported to leave, and that is why this bill is so important. It builds upon all the work that we have been doing federally and in this state to make sure that, if that is the situation, that person feels supported, and that is what we are doing here today to put this bill forward.

But as we head into International Women's Day in two weeks' time, there are unresolved issues, wider issues, structural issues that we must continue to address. I have to say that, in my time in this house, this attention about family and domestic violence is something that has been supported, generally in a bipartisan way, but of course there is more to do. I thank people for their support of this bill and I commend the bill to the house.

Ms THOMPSON (Davenport) (11:40): I rise, too, to offer my support for the Fair Work (Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Amendment Bill 2022. All women and children have a right to a life free of violence. Let's take a minute to acknowledge some hard truths. In Australia, one in four women have experienced partner violence; one in four women have experienced emotional abuse by a current/former partner. In this country, a woman is killed by an intimate partner on average every 10 days, and rates of violence are even higher for certain groups such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.

Violence against women and children is a leading cause of homelessness. Children exposed to violence experience long-lasting effects on their development, health and wellbeing. This is why our government has a strong vision for ending the scourge of domestic, family and sexual violence, and other forms of disrespect and discrimination that affect women and families in our communities.

Our government is committed to working alongside service providers, women's organisations, women experiencing domestic violence and other stakeholders to use all possible levers to prevent and end domestic violence. We will be doing everything in our power to better support, protect and empower those affected by domestic violence. This bill introduces a new minimum employment condition for public sector and local government employees of 15 paid days of family and domestic violence leave each year.

The bill also amends the Fair Work Act to include promoting and facilitating gender equity to ensure this is taken into account by the South Australian Employment Tribunal when determining future industrial entitlements. This follows the 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave introduced for private sector employees by the Albanese Labor government last year, which came into effect this month.

Paid family and domestic violence leave is a workplace entitlement that will save lives. The measure will allow victims of family violence to take time off work without losing income and without losing their jobs. For a long time, we have assumed family and domestic violence is something that just affects you in somebody's home and is something that happens outside of the workplace, but it has a huge interface with work and employers have an increasingly important role to play.

The connection with work and the payment of wages are important in maintaining stability in the lives of those experiencing violence when they are attempting to leave a domestic violence situation. Family and domestic violence leave is an extra layer of support for women and children experiencing violence. Research shows that finances and domestic violence are inextricably linked and that access to a steady income can mitigate the effects of violence and provide avenues out of abuse. Paid family violence leave is one tool to help us to achieve this.

Women in my community who have shared their stories with me tell me that leaving an abusive relationship can be costly. There is the cost of finding a new home, the cost of moving house, medical and counselling bills, legal fees, there can be increased transportation costs due to the loss of access to a car, and then there is the loss of earnings among other financial burdens. Because of this, financial hardship can bind women to abusive relationships.

The economic support that comes from ongoing employment can be critical in supporting women to leave abusive relationships. Providing paid leaves means we are not asking victims to choose between forgoing the necessary support and financial security. It also means that victims may be better able to weather the storm of domestic and family violence.

Addressing domestic and family violence is one step towards closing the gender pay gap, as women who experience violence are more likely to fall behind in their career, into low-paid and casual work or out of the workforce entirely. A worker should not suffer financial disadvantage for choosing to access these entitlements. That is why, unlike other leave entitlements, family and domestic violence leave is calculated including any penalty rates or overtime payments a worker receives. It is also why this leave is available to all employees: full time, part time and casual.

The bill also includes robust confidentiality requirements so that employees can have confidence their personal information will be treated appropriately. Employers cannot copy or retain evidence provided by the employee to support their leave claim. Employers are also prohibited from requesting information from an employee about the nature and extent of the domestic violence they are experiencing.

The bill makes it a criminal offence for an employer to disclose information obtained through these processes without the consent of the employee to whom the information relates. I hope that the implementation of this leave will send a strong message to our community and to workers and their families that their government and the biggest employers in this state—the public sector and local government—do not and will not tolerate domestic violence.

The Malinauskas government is committed to enacting a range of legislative change, preventative actions and policies that will help keep women safe. Restoring funding to the Women's Domestic Violence Court Assistance Service last year, after it was cut by the former government, is an essential component of this effort. This important service helps hundreds of women affected by domestic violence to access free legal advice and provides invaluable support by helping survivors of domestic and family violence secure the necessary legal protections against an abusive partner.

By restoring this funding, our government is ensuring the service can continue and cope with growing demand, with 800 women accessing support each year. The investment also means that the service can expand its focus to better support those in regional areas, as well as women from culturally diverse backgrounds who may face additional barriers in reporting abuse and seeking support.

We know just how important free, easily accessible legal advice is for those at risk. In recent years this service has helped to protect thousands of SA women and empower them to escape abuse. Our government has also reinstated the $1.2 million of funding to Catherine House that was cut by the former government. Catherine House is an incredible service, offering a safe and secure place for women experiencing homelessness, often as a result of domestic violence.

In line with our election commitments, we will soon be introducing legislation to criminalise coercive control. Across Australia, communities just like many here in our state are rightly calling for the criminalisation of coercive control, and this reform will represent a major step forward in the need to address the horrendous prevalence of domestic violence.

We know that coercive control is overwhelmingly perpetrated against women by a current or former intimate partner and often precedes other forms of domestic violence. Those who have experienced it are dominated and controlled through intimidation, humiliation, isolation and by removing their sense of self-worth. The controlling behaviour often includes threats and actual violence and, in some cases, tragically precedes murder.

We have been consulting with the domestic and family violence sector and our community to determine the most effective way to legislate against coercive control, how to educate service providers for our community and teach people to recognise it when they see it, and ensure that perpetrators are brought to account for all acts of domestic violence.

We are committed to hearing the voices of victim survivors, at-risk groups, women who live in regional areas, women from diverse cultural backgrounds and Aboriginal women, as we move towards introducing legislation to the South Australian parliament this year. There is still so much that we can do in this space and we intend to progress a range of legislative changes and reforms. We will also be introducing legislation to:

include the experience of domestic violence as a ground for discrimination in the Equal Opportunity Act;

require those who have been charged with serious domestic violence offences and granted bail to be electronically monitored as a condition of their bail; and

review legislation pertaining to consent to sexual activity.

Fifteen days of paid family and domestic violence leave will set a national benchmark. People experiencing domestic violence should never need to make the choice between their financial security and their safety. We will continue to relentlessly speak up and act to prevent and end domestic violence, because domestic, family and sexual violence has no place in our community. I commend this bill to the house.

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS (Cheltenham—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services) (11:50): I rise of course to support this important bill. First and foremost I note that, whilst often areas of law reform relating to women's safety are categorised as social issues or social matters, at its core this is fundamentally economic reform undertaken by this government.

Keeping women at work, encouraging women to be at work and removing barriers to women's participation in the workforce are fundamental to opening up a wealth of economic opportunity. A raft of reforms are currently being considered and advocated for from a national perspective that go directly to the heart of that. I will just touch briefly on the commitment by the Albanese Labor government to revolutionise early childhood, particularly the way that it is funded.

When it comes to the lion's share of caring responsibilities, we know that that falls disproportionately and unfairly into the laps of women. I am sure I speak on behalf of all the men in this chamber, particularly the Minister for Health and Wellbeing who has children of similar age to mine, when I acknowledge the enormous work our wonderful, caring, patient partners and wives do—

An honourable member: Forgiving.

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS: —forgiving partners do, with my beautiful seven year old and two year old at home.

Any policy that seeks to support women into the workforce or to stay in the workforce is good economics. We can talk often about the levers that governments can pull at state and federal level around workforce planning, jobs policy and skills policy. Often that goes to skilled migration or, rightfully so, to skills development at school, but the greatest untapped economic lever that we can pull is greater women's participation in the workforce. This reform, whilst supporting women who are already in work, will fundamentally keep more women in work.

Before being elected to this place, I had the privilege of spending many years as, first, an employee, an advocate and a campaigner and then, ultimately, a leader in our trade union movement. It is something that I am incredibly proud to have done, and to this day I remain an incredibly proud trade union member and trade unionist. Amongst the many roles that I had, and most recently before being elected to this place as secretary of SA Unions, I was part of a campaign to see this very reform enacted.

I still recall back in late 2017, potentially very early 2018, when the then Premier, Jay Weatherill—a terrific leader of this state and wonderful former member for Cheltenham—announced his then Labor government's commitment, if they were to be re-elected, to roll out this reform some four years ago. It was an incredibly proud moment obviously for me personally and for the advocates and trade unions who had been campaigning for this very thing.

In noting that, I want to acknowledge a couple of trade unions particularly that have been advocating for this and dedicating significant time and resources to seeing this reform rolled out both in South Australia and also, as we have seen, on a federal scale. Those unions that largely represent South Australian-based workers within our retained industrial relations system, the Public Sector Association, the Australian Workers' Union, and the Australian Services Union—my union—have done extraordinary work in this space.

They represent the workers who support, care and pick up the pieces in family and domestic violence situations, workers like those who work for Women's Safety Services, an organisation that I have known for a long time and have a particular admiration for having seen the work that they do in my electorate in the western suburbs in supporting women who are fleeing family and domestic violence.

I think there are few organisations in this state better equipped to speak about the impacts of family and domestic violence than the Australian Services Union themselves because they represent the workers on whom this scourge takes such a huge toll. I do commend them, and I want to acknowledge the important role that they have played and how proud they must be today to see this after many years on the pathway to becoming law in South Australia.

There are some $26 billion or 26 billion reasons that this is important reform. As I said, this is good economic reform, and the 26 billion reasons are the $26 billion of impact that family and domestic violence has on our national economy each year. So much of that cost is borne by women.

I say women because it is the case almost with no exception that women are the victims of family and domestic violence. It is those women who flee, those women who up until now, both here in South Australia and also on a national level through the national system, have been forced to take unpaid leave when it comes to taking the simple but profound steps that would involve the loss of income to seek safety from a violent situation at home. Attending counselling appointments, medical appointments and police interviews are just a few examples of things that take a considerable amount of time.

These reforms will absolutely make a profound social impact on these women's lives, but they will also have a profound economic impact on women's lives. As has been said and spoken to by a number of members of this chamber, women's safety is a non-partisan issue. There are things that each government will of course do, and there are things that subsequent and former governments will not have done, but no-one in this place underestimates the importance of policy reform to keep women safe. No-one in this place undervalues the importance of making changes where we can, particularly for a small but important cohort of retained South Australian state industrial relations employees.

I commend this bill to the house and, in doing so, I do so proudly as an individual and as a proud trade unionist who has been campaigning for this for a long time, and I am very proud to see this getting closer to law.

Mr ODENWALDER (Elizabeth) (11:59): I rise to make a brief contribution to the Fair Work (Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Amendment Bill. I want to thank all the previous speakers. I think it has been an enlightening debate. I have missed some of it, but I just want to put on the record my admiration for the member for Elder's speech. She outlined very succinctly the extent of the problem of domestic violence in our society and pulled no punches in saying that this is very much a problem of man on woman violence rather than any other permutation of that. The rates of domestic and family violence perpetrated by men on women far outweigh any other permutation of that violence. I think that is something we absolutely have to accept when we are having debates of this sort. I want to commend the member for Elder for laying it out so clearly.

As many others of us have remarked in this house, the Malinauskas Labor government has a strong vision for achieving gender equity, closing the pay gap and, of course, continuing the project of ending domestic, family and sexual violence and all other forms of disrespect and discrimination in our society.

The rates of domestic violence in all forms throughout Australia are deeply alarming. The statistics speak for themselves. I know that we have heard them, but I do want to read them into the Hansard again because I think they are so important. One in four women has experienced intimate partner violence since the age of 15. If we accept that these are accurate figures and not an under-representation based on reporting, this is alarming—this is fully one quarter of women over the age of 15 experiencing intimate partner violence. One quarter of women has experienced emotional abuse by a current or former partner since the age of 15. On average, a woman is killed by an intimate partner every 10 days. Of course, as we all know, rates of violence are even higher for certain groups in our society.

As the member for Elder did outline and expand upon, 95 per cent of people who have experienced physical or sexual violence name a man as the perpetrator of at least one incident of violence, and around four in five family and domestic violence offenders are men. The effects of domestic and family violence are long-lasting and unjust, impacting the development, health and wellbeing of women and, particularly, children. Violence against women and children is also a leading cause of homelessness for women and children.

As I said at the outset, the Malinauskas Labor government takes these issues extremely seriously. An important part of that program is continuing in this state the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme. As the Minister for Police has just pointed out, I do want to acknowledge those on the other side who have worked towards these ends as well. I do particularly want to acknowledge the former member for Bragg, which does not happen that often in this place. I do want to acknowledge her particular work in bringing the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme to something like the form we see now—and long may it continue.

I first raised the issue of a domestic violence disclosure scheme back in 2014 during the Weatherill government. That started a process within the government of looking at this issue and how we could best model a domestic violence disclosure scheme. It is complicated work; it relies often on disclosure of information that would not necessarily ordinarily be disclosed. Of course, there are legal processes by which information can be disclosed—for instance, to defendants in a case or, indeed, accused persons in a certain case.

But the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme, by its nature, goes beyond that. It allows the proactive disclosure by police, when requested, of information about a potential partner (particularly of a woman) who, despite having no legal proceedings against them at the present time, may present a danger to that woman. The police now have the power to proactively disclose that information. It also allows a potential victim to ask the police for this information.

As I said, it is complicated. There should be safeguards around this. This is information which does not have the rigour applied to it that a legal proceeding would, but it absolutely is very important work. I hope to see the work that has been done expanded in future years.

I missed a lot of the Minister for Police's speech, but I know that the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme works closely within SAPOL and within the Multi-Agency Protective Service (MAPS) structure. It is very much my hope that that structure continues, of course, but also that it can be expanded, because I think it is important work. It touches the surface of these things. The more we chip away at it, and the more we normalise the idea that domestic violence and violence against women is not acceptable in our society, can only be a good thing.

The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme has been a success and the statistics bear that out. In 2002, under the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme:

177 disclosure meetings were scheduled and 156 took place;

65 per cent of women at risk had children in their care;

12 per cent self disclosed a diagnosed disability and 34 per cent a mental health concern;

7 per cent identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander;

9 per cent were from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds; and

around 1 per cent identified as LGBTIQ+.

Of the total applications to the DVDS over the past four years, that is, since it was instituted by the member for Bragg and building on work done by the Weatherill government:

96 per cent of applications were from women—again, this bears out the observations of the member for Elder in that this is a problem of men perpetrating violence on women almost exclusively;

39 per cent were from regional areas; and

33 per cent of applications were made by a concerned third party.

When I was a police officer some 20-odd years ago, it is fair to say that the police and the police structures did not take domestic violence as seriously as they do now. That was a fair criticism then and, looking back historically, it remains a fair criticism. There were people back then working in the background in SAPOL—the current commissioner and deputy commissioner among them, who were working diligently and thinking about these things.

That led to police now taking these issues far more seriously aided, of course, by legislation introduced by the Weatherill government around interim orders. The police were empowered to impose orders upon people, almost on the spot, so that women who were immediately endangered did not have to go through a lengthy court process in order to obtain a restraining order. That was a very good move. It was work done by the Weatherill government but very much led by SAPOL and by people like the commissioner, the deputy commissioner and, of course, the late Jo Shanahan whom we have spoken about in this place on many occasions. So I do support this bill.

Another important facet of this bill is that it legislates the facilitation of gender equity for future industrial entitlement determinations by amending the Fair Work Act. These things will be taken into account by the South Australian Employment Tribunal, and again is another step toward gender equity in our workplaces and in our society.

Violence against women affects all aspects of their lives. It can have a negative impact on their capacity to attend work, with 48 per cent of women who had experienced violence saying that it reduced their attendance at work. People suffering from domestic and family violence may also suffer from financial abuse, leaving them with an economic dependency to stay in that situation. They often do not have the means and the capacity to safely and independently escape.

Having access to paid family and domestic violence leave is an important safeguard, to ensure that people in family and domestic violence situations do not have to choose between their safety and their financial security. A worker should not suffer financial disadvantage for choosing to access domestic and family violence leave entitlements.

That is why, unlike other leave entitlements, with this legislation we go one step further and allow family and domestic violence leave to be calculated, including any penalty rates or overtime payments a worker receives. That is also why this leave is available to all employees—full-time, part-time and casual.

Another important requirement for people attempting to leave domestic and family violence situations is strict confidentiality. This bill ensures that employers cannot copy or retain evidence provided by the employee to support their leave claim. Employers are also prohibited from requesting information from an employee about the nature and extent of the domestic violence they are experiencing. If an employer does disclose information obtained through these processes, this bill makes it a criminal offence, provided the employee to whom the information relates did not provide consent.

As the largest employers in this state, the government, the public sector, and local government will be setting the standard in our community, and to its workers and employers. We do not and will not tolerate domestic violence. I commend the bill to the house.

Ms SAVVAS (Newland) (12:09): I am incredibly proud to stand in this chamber, as I often am, when I have the opportunity to speak to my three main passions: defending the rights of and advancing the interests of women, of children and of working people. In fact, it is the defence of working people and the defence of women and children who grew up very much like I did that has given rise to my opportunity to stand in this place at all.

Minister Szakacs said a moment ago, in his contribution, that this is predominantly an economic bill as well, obviously, as a social one, and I could not agree more. The economic benefits will be felt for generations to come.

One in four women has experienced intimate partner violence since the age of 15 and one in four women has experienced emotional abuse by a current or former partner since the age of 15. Historically, on average a woman is killed by an intimate partner every 10 days. Rates of violence are even higher for certain groups such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.

Like so many others, I have lived my entire life marred by the perils of family violence, and, as a very young child, was one of many, many South Australians forced to seek accommodation support as a result of that continued violence. In fact, that is a situation that still afflicts my life in many different ways, and I know first-hand that the impacts of family and domestic violence are long-lasting and incredibly complex. Children, particularly, exposed to violence experience long-lasting effects on their development, health and wellbeing, and eventual economic opportunities. I feel incredibly privileged to have found a path out, knowing that for so many that is not possible.

Despite that, the complications of my own childhood led, in my opinion, to the best decision I have ever and will ever make: that is, the decision to join the Australian Labor Party. It is that decision that gave me, eventually, the opportunity to stand in this place and fight for progress. Today we are given that opportunity again, and I am so intensely proud to be speaking to this bill introducing a new minimum employment condition for public sector and local government employees of 15 paid days of family and domestic violence leave each year.

The bill also amends the objects of the Fair Work Act, which, if successful, will now promote and facilitate gender equity, noting the disproportionate impact of family violence on women, and ensure that the South Australian Employment Tribunal considers family and domestic violence when determining future industrial entitlements. We are not the first to take on this responsibility—and it is, in my opinion, a responsibility. Family and domestic violence is everyone's business, and it has taken me until the last year to actually realise that in its entirety.

For me, although speaking out about family and domestic violence is very new, it has been the response of so many in my local community, in my friendship group, in my peer group, and in my family. That response has shown to me how important it is not just to normalise speaking out but to normalise leaving shame at the door and taking action. It was the Albanese Labor government that first introduced 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave for private sector employees last year, and that had a consequential impact on so many Australians. We have an opportunity now to add to that impact.

Family and domestic violence leave can be used for any purpose related to the worker experiencing family and domestic violence, including attending medical appointments, court proceedings, receiving legal advice, and—one that I think is incredibly important, particularly for those not choosing to or not able to seek formal reparation against their perpetrator—the ability to take leave to move house, to get themselves and their families out of an unsafe environment, often during the day when the perpetrator is out at work.

This leave is an important safeguard to make sure that people attempting to escape family and domestic violence situations do not have to choose between their safety and independence on one hand and their economic security on the other. And we do know that economic security is one of the major barriers that particularly women—but not only women—face when assessing whether or not they are able to leave.

We know that addressing domestic and family violence is one step also towards closing the gender pay gap, as women who do experience violence are more likely to fall behind in their career or find themselves in low-paid and casual work out of necessity. Often we find that women experiencing domestic and family violence are unable to continue in the workforce at all.

A worker should not suffer financial disadvantage for choosing to access these entitlements. That is why, unlike other leave entitlements, family and domestic violence leave is calculated including any penalty rates or overtime payments that a worker would receive. That is also why this leave is available to all employees—full time, part time and casual.

The bill also includes robust confidentiality requirements so that employees can have confidence that their personal information will be treated appropriately. Employers cannot copy or retain evidence provided by the employee to support their leave claims. Employers are also prohibited from requesting information from an employee about the nature and extent of the domestic violence they are experiencing, which for many as we know exacerbates the trauma at home. We know that without this there would be a significant number of people who would simply choose not to request their leave, choosing instead to eat into their annual leave or simply go to work.

The bill also makes it a criminal offence for an employer to disclose information obtained through these processes without the consent of the employee to whom the information relates, which is incredibly important, particularly where there are safety concerns relating to other employees or relationships at work.

Enshrining this leave will send a clear message to our community and to workers and their families that their government and the biggest employers in the state—the public sector and local government—do not and will not tolerate domestic violence.

Our government is staunchly committed to making a real difference to the lives of women in South Australia, and we will continue to speak up and act to prevent and end domestic violence. Domestic family and sexual violence has no place in our community, and we will continue to fight for the rights of those victims who need strong governments on their side. I commend the bill.

Mr FULBROOK (Playford) (12:17): I rise in support of the Fair Work (Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Amendment Bill 2022. What we have before us is a bill that strikes a cord with Labor values, and while I am proud to be associated with a movement that strives to give working people a fair go, I consider it a deep privilege that we can help enshrine another win for workers and their families that I am sure will save lives. I do not say this in jubilation as there is sadly an inevitability that the leave provisions will be used, even if it is my wish that this would never be the case.

As I said in my maiden speech, I come from a wealthy background. Wealth to me does not mean being surrounded by an abundance of money. Instead, my wealth came through growing up in a loving home with two parents in love with each other and their children. To this day it remains unchanged, and my wealth has grown further with the addition of a beautiful wife and a son in my life. Because of this my exposure to domestic violence would appear to be a distant one, and while it has only affected me indirectly it is something that has recently and profoundly crept into my life.

Out of respect to the victim, I will not go into details, but I have now seen firsthand how many lives it shatters. Having said that, I take this opportunity to remind the perpetrator to face up to your actions and start thinking of others ahead of yourself. I would like to say more but this is not the time and the place.

Like so many facets within our society relating to matters such as health, disability, mental health and the environment there is always more to do. We can add domestic violence to this list. Today we are here to debate a new minimum employment condition for public sector and local government employees of 15 days of family and domestic violence leave each year. I am in full praise of this, but in speaking in support I stress that we have a long journey ahead of us.

Noting that this bill follows 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave introduced for private sector employees by the Albanese government, I take this opportunity to suggest that private employers consider the 10 days as a minimum. The equivalent of two weeks off from work will burn up quickly when considering time is needed for domestic violence victims to attend medical appointments and court proceedings, to receive legal advice and for the inevitable time spent moving home. I can only imagine how difficult it is to be doing this alone, and for this I urge all employers to look beyond the minimum level of leave prescribed and be as flexible as possible during a challenging time.

I also said in my maiden speech that I would do everything I can to increase the time we have to spend with our families. It should be made clear that the 15 days' leave we are discussing here does not tick that box. There is nothing recreational about domestic violence, and it is almost inevitable anyone fleeing from it will use up the leave they have very quickly.

I have seen enough to know victims experience a lot more than just physical pain. Fear, harassment, disruption, mental torture: they are just some of the words that come to mind when I try to imagine what the victims experience. That said, until it happens to you, I am pretty sure my words only scratch the surface. I choose them to express that victimisation cannot be done and dusted in just a few days. Clearly, this is not just a symbolic gesture, but there is symbolism within the actions of this bill that I feel is significant and should not be discounted.

To all the victims out there, I want you all to know that parliament, as is the broader community, is on your side. This is backed up further by some significant provisions that stretch beyond the extra leave in this bill. The bill has robust confidentiality requirements so employees can have confidence their personal information will be treated appropriately. Employers cannot copy or retain evidence provided by the employee to support their leave claim. They are also prohibited from requesting information from an employee about the nature and extent of the domestic violence that they are experiencing.

I am also pleased it will become a criminal offence for an employer to disclose information obtained through these processes without the consent of the employee to whom the information relates. This is vital as the mishandling of information is something in these circumstances that I see to be a major problem. It reinforces the point I made earlier that we do have a long way to go. If we suppress the emotional elements for just one moment and focus solely on the economics of domestic violence, noting it costs the national economy $26 billion each year, we do have to go further.

We have before us a bill that is doing a good thing, but how we change beyond this requires a high degree of introspection. In saying this, I am looking at myself and all the men around us. I do not discount that domestic violence happens to men, but it cannot be ignored that 95 per cent of people who have experienced physical or sexual violence name a man as the perpetrator. In commending this bill, I stress as a male we must all do a lot better.

The Hon. A. MICHAELS (Enfield—Minister for Small and Family Business, Minister for Consumer and Business Affairs, Minister for Arts) (12:22): I rise today also to speak in favour of the Fair Work (Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Amendment Bill 2022. As you are aware, Mr Deputy Speaker, the federal government legislates for a vast majority of workers in Australia; however, we as a state government have jurisdiction over state and local government employees, and that is what this bill is seeking to target, to bring the South Australian Fair Work Act in line with the federal act with respect to family and domestic violence leave.

Many countries, including Australia, have provision for family and domestic violence leave included as a workplace right in various forms of employment legislation. Family and domestic violence leave is an entitlement that, as you are aware, Mr Deputy Speaker, enables an employee to have either paid or unpaid time off for purposes related to family or domestic violence. It can include things from attending medical appointments, seeking legal assistance, attending counselling or having to relocate to escape a domestic violence situation, a range of issues that make it difficult for people in this position to be able to attend work.

The commonwealth Fair Work Act previously provided an entitlement for leave of up to five days each year. I am really proud that the Albanese Labor government last year amended the commonwealth legislation to increase paid family and domestic violence leave for employees covered through that commonwealth act from five to 10 days. That came into effect this month.

With this bill in South Australia, we are introducing a new minimum employment condition for public sector and local government employees in South Australia providing 15 paid days of family and domestic violence leave each year. That is something we are really proud of.

We cannot underestimate the importance of taking this step as one of many steps that need to be taken to improve the situation. It really is an important safeguard to make sure anyone who is attempting to flee a domestic violence situation does not have to choose between their safety and independence on one hand versus their economic security, either keeping their job or getting paid for the time they are away.

Any worker seeking to escape domestic violence should not really have to have that decision put in front of them and should not have to suffer that financial disadvantage when they are trying to protect their safety and wellbeing—and often, not only their own but those of their children as well. That is why, unlike other leave entitlements, family and domestic violence leave will be calculated to include penalty rates or overtime payments that a worker would otherwise be entitled to receive to make sure they are not disadvantaged. Importantly, it will be available to all employees, including full-time and part-time employees and, critically, to casual employees as well.

As I said, this is just one step towards closing that gender gap, with women who live in domestic and family violence environments more likely to fall behind in their career, more likely to be in low-paid work or casual work and, sadly, many are forced out of the workforce entirely when they suffer this kind of crisis. We are committed to making it as easy as possible for people to leave domestic and family violence situations. The financial abuse and hardship that can result in some people being forced to remain in bad environments are horrendous, and that is why we are taking steps to make sure it is as easy as possible for these victims.

We also are working with the financial industry, the real estate industry to make sure that victims of domestic violence do not bear the brunt of mortgage repayments or rent when they are trying to exit these situations. When mortgages or rents go unpaid, it is often of serious financial consequence for the women, it can be overwhelming and it can put them further behind in trying to rebuild their lives.

While working with these industries to provide financial protection, we are also reinstating funding previously cut by the former Liberal government to provide assistance to women escaping domestic and family violence. I am really proud that we have restored the $800,000 of funding over four years for the Women's Domestic Violence Court Assistance Service. This is a really important service that helps women, whether they are applying for intervention orders, trying to end residential tenancy agreements, having to deal with police to report breaches of intervention orders, and it provides a range of other assistance, so it is really important that that funding was restored when we came in to government.

I want to particularly talk on one organisation that has been close to my heart for 10 to 15 years or so, and that is Catherine House. I have been an ambassador for Catherine House for quite some years and a supporter before that. The former Liberal government cruelly cut $1.2 million of funding from Catherine House when Catherine House has been the only women's homelessness service in South Australia. Those funds were desperately needed for their emergency crisis accommodation at Catherine House. Deputy Speaker, as you are aware, we have reinstated that funding and it was really important when we came into government that we did that.

The fastest growing cohort of women facing homelessness are women over the age of 50. That is my mother. Deputy Speaker, I am sure that is your mother. They are the types of women who, in the wrong situation, are falling into homelessness. That is a really sad state of affairs that we need to take action on and we need to support the organisations that support those women.

When the funding was reinstated to Catherine House, I know from my conversations with them that they breathed a massive sigh of relief. It is an incredible service offering safe and secure accommodation for women experiencing homelessness, often as a result of fleeing domestic violence situations. Catherine House is a not-for-profit organisation based in South Australia. It provides not only accommodation but also further wraparound supports, mental health supports and education services, getting these women job-ready from the emergency accommodation right through to finding them stable accommodation for them to be able to set up their new lives.

It is really important that we are supporting organisations like that, and particularly the emergency accommodation and the counselling and advocacy that they provide. This sort of service not only improves women's health and wellbeing, it sets them on a path to achieve their own personal goals. As I said, Catherine House does offer a range of various programs including financial and literacy ones—and there are law firms that provide pro bono advice to help women at Catherine House—as well as basic computer skills and job readiness training. It provides that whole gamut to get these women back on track and surviving the situation of domestic violence.

One of the programs is the Sow and Grow program. It provides opportunities for women to develop new skills and social connections through gardening and through food preparation. As a by-product of the program, the Catherine House team that produces the meals there gets fresh produce from the garden. The primary goal of Catherine House is to break that cycle of homelessness and empower the women they serve through the provision of services and to support and help them to overcome the challenges they face and to achieve their independence—and part of that is the training and education they get through programs like that.

I continue to proudly support Catherine House and I am very grateful for the services they offer to the women in our community. From a whole-of-government approach we are committed to working with a range of service providers, women's organisations, women themselves experiencing domestic violence and other key stakeholders in order to use every lever at our disposal to prevent and end domestic and family violence.

We are committed to enacting a range of legislative change, preventative actions and policies and options for recovery to help women ensure their safety at all times in our community. Violence against women is not just a problem for the government to deal with. We do need the assistance of the not-for-profit sector. We need the support of the business community, our community at large, and our faith groups. We all need to work together to deal with this problem.

From the age of 15, one in four women have experienced intimate partner violence or have experienced emotional abuse by a current or former partner. That is an awful statistic. What is worse is that one woman is killed by an intimate partner in Australia every 10 days. Every 10 days. These women, these victims, are why we need to put in place measures like this to ensure people have the freedom and the ability to be able to flee a domestic violence situation and have the support services around them to help them survive.

Domestic and family violence has a real monetary cost too: $26 billion a year. It is a cost to the national economy. It is a cost borne by victims and their families, businesses that support them and the community. It impacts the ability to work and it often results in people not being able to attend work, and losing their jobs in some cases. This is a common cause of homelessness for women and their children trying to flee domestic violence.

Enshrining in law this leave for our public sector employees sends a really clear message to the community, to workers and their families that this government will not tolerate domestic violence and will do everything in our power to make sure we take action to end that domestic violence cycle. We are staunchly committed to making a real difference here in South Australia to the lives of women and we will continue to work towards the prevention and ending of family and domestic violence. It has no place in our community.

This bill shows our commitment that, should these acts occur, there are measures in place to help these victims, in a non-judgemental and discriminatory manner. With that, I commend this bill to the house.

S.E. ANDREWS (Gibson) (12:33): I rise to speak in support of the Fair Work (Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Amendment Bill 2022. I stand here as a feminist, an advocate for equality and as a proud member of the Australian Services Union (the ASU), a union that has been advocating in workplaces across our country for family and domestic violence leave for more than a decade.

ASU members negotiated Australia's first domestic violence leave entitlement in the Surf Coast Shire council over 10 years ago. In February 2023, 10 days of paid domestic violence leave came into effect for all private sector employers across Australia by the Albanese Labor government. This is a historic change that would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of ASU members across Australia. These workplace-level changes led to a movement that has now changed federal workplace laws, and today it is our chance to make history with this bill.

This bill introduces a new minimum employment condition for public sector and local government employees of 15 paid days of family and domestic violence leave each year. The bill also amends the objects of the Fair Work Act to include promoting and facilitating gender equity to ensure this is considered by the South Australian Employment Tribunal when determining future industrial entitlements.

Family and domestic violence leave can be used for any purpose relating to the worker experiencing family and domestic violence, including but not limited to attending medical appointments or court proceedings, receiving legal advice and relocating residences. This is an important change, as one in four women has experienced intimate partner violence since the age of 15, and one in four women has experienced emotional abuse by a current or former partner since the age of 15.

Further, on average, a woman is killed by an intimate partner in Australia every 10 days. These statistics are horrific and shameful, and my thoughts are with those who have suffered or currently suffer from domestic or family violence. I particularly think of the children exposed to such violence, who will experience long-lasting effects in their development, health and wellbeing and are also at risk of experiencing homelessness with their mum.

People can seek help through 1800RESPECT, and men who need help can call MensLine. I do note that, while four in five family and domestic violence offenders are men, there is also violence against men and against members of our LGBTIQ+ community. Violence against women and children costs our national economy $26 billion each year, with victim survivors bearing approximately 50 per cent of that cost.

Violence against women affects all aspects of their lives. It can have a negative impact on their capacity to attend work, with 48 per cent of women who had experienced violence saying that it reduced their attendance at work. Therefore, the leave introduced by this bill is an important safeguard to make sure that people attempting to escape family and domestic violence situations do not have to choose between their safety and independence on one hand and their economic security on the other.

Addressing domestic and family violence is one step towards closing the gender pay gap, as women who experience violence are more likely to fall behind in their career, into low-paid and casual work or out of the workforce entirely. A worker should not suffer financial disadvantage for choosing to access these entitlements. That is why, unlike other leave entitlements, family and domestic violence leave is calculated including any penalty rates or overtime payments a worker receives. That is also why this leave is available to all employees—full time, part time or casual.

The bill also includes robust confidentiality requirements so that employees can have confidence their personal information will be treated appropriately. Employers cannot copy or retain evidence provided by the employee to support their leave claim. Employers are also prohibited from requesting information from an employee about the nature and extent of the domestic violence they are experiencing.

This bill makes it a criminal offence for an employer to disclose information obtained through these processes without the consent of the employee to whom the information relates. Enshrining this leave will send a clear message to our community and to workers and their families that their government and the biggest employers in the state—the public sector and local government—do not and will not tolerate domestic violence.

I am proud to be part of a Labor government that is staunchly committed to making a real difference to the lives of women in South Australia. We will relentlessly speak up and act to prevent and end domestic violence. Domestic, family and sexual violence has no place in our community.

We have already restored the $800,000 of funding over four years to the Women's Domestic Violence Court Assistance Service that was cut by the former government. This important service helps women with intervention order applications, variations and revocations, ending tenancies, and liaising with police to report breaches of intervention orders and other domestic violence issues.

Our government has also reinstated the $1.2 million of funding to Catherine House that was cruelly cut by the former government. Catherine House is an incredible service offering a safe and secure place for women experiencing homelessness, often as a result of domestic violence.

We are committed to enacting a range of legislative change, preventative actions and policies, and options for recovery that help women stay safe. I thank the Australian Services Union, their organisers and workplace representatives for their hard work every single day fighting for the rights of workers, particularly our most vulnerable in our community. I commend this bill to the house.

Ms HUTCHESSON (Waite) (12:40): I rise in support of this, the Fair Work (Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Amendment Bill. Before coming to this place, my role was to help workers communicate with their employers, to ensure that they were being treated fairly, and to advocate on their behalf.

As an industrial advocate, it was my job to help members understand their rights, support them when they were being treated poorly, and to help support them when they had no-one else to turn to. From time to time, members would call up having issues accessing their leave entitlements, whether it be annual leave, sick leave, parental leave and even bereavement leave, and sometimes a member would call up needing to talk about what options were available to them when they were experiencing domestic violence. Some would feel that they should not or could not let their managers know that they needed to take time off; time to look for a new home, time to attend medical appointments, or time to help their kids adjust.

For a long time, we only really had a few thousand workers whose employers provided their staff with paid domestic violence leave. Opportunities during enterprise agreement negotiations allowed this leave entitlement to be discussed, and we saw some of our other major employers also provide this entitlement. I will call out Westpac, who in 2018 during negotiation committed 20 days of paid leave, and in 2019 Commonwealth Bank offered unlimited leave. These are private companies who understood the need.

I remember when the We Won't Wait campaign to have domestic violence leave to be added to the National Employment Standards began, to ensure all employees from all industries covered by the NES would have access. To me, it seemed like we should have had this in place where, as a nation, supporting someone who is having to deal with domestic violence—mostly women—should have been something that the Fair Work Commission sought to introduce.

The campaign called for 10 days paid leave back then. Disappointingly, the Fair Work Commission ruled five days unpaid would be sufficient. Sufficient for whom? The employer? The federal government refused to ensure Australian workers had access to paid domestic and family violence leave, despite evidence that it would save lives and cost business just 5¢ a day. To not provide payment for days needed to attend medical appointments, see a lawyer, look for a roof to put over someone's head—often their children as well—prevented many from even asking to take leave.

Not only were they dealing with financial worries that come from a relationship breakdown, they would have to go without pay should they dare to have the courage to tell their employer that they were experiencing domestic violence. Not surprisingly, it took a federal Labor government to introduce paid domestic violence leave. It took a Labor government to understand the importance of supporting victims of domestic abuse, provide them with an income whilst they were dealing with what quite likely is the most scary thing they have ever had to do, and allow them to put food on the table, look for a new home, and have money to afford rent/mortgage payments, so that they had a roof over their heads.

Of course it took a Labor government to do that, and it is a Labor government here in South Australia that is on the front foot again to provide 15 days of paid domestic violence leave for public sector and local government employees. As the state's biggest employer, we are leading the way. This leave means that those people who have finally made the decision to flee an abusive relationship do not have to choose between theirs and possibly their children's safety, and their independence and their economic security.

The leave will cover full-time, part-time and casual employees, including all loadings, penalties and overtime that the worker may normally receive. There will be no punishment for taking the leave. They will not be worse off for needing to take the leave. They should not fall behind because they need to access the leave.

During my time supporting members, I came across examples of where an employee felt like they had to jump through hoops to prove that they were even experiencing domestic violence. They had to provide medical records, letters from doctors, certificates, lawyers' documents, police reports and so on and, on a few occasions, were talked out of even accessing the leave—instead told they had to take annual or sick leave. They often did not even want to ask for the leave, knowing that they would be questioned about their situation.

This legislation will have strong confidentiality requirements so that employees can have confidence their personal information will be treated appropriately. Employers cannot copy or retain evidence provided by the employee to support their leave claim. Employers are also prohibited from requesting information from an employee about the nature and extent of the domestic violence they are experiencing.

The bill makes it a criminal offence for an employer to disclose information obtained through these processes without the consent of the employee to whom the information relates. At a time when an employee is going through such a harrowing experience, which they may have been plagued with for what could have been quite a long time, they should not have to relive the experience with their manager just to be able to take the leave.

One in four women has experienced intimate partner violence since the age of 15, one in four has experienced emotional abuse by a current or former partner since the age of 15, and on average a woman is killed by an intimate partner every 10 days. In the time between now and when we sit here in the house again, a woman will be killed by her intimate partner. It is a startling statistic. Enshrining this leave will send a clear message to our community and to workers and their families that their government and the biggest employers in the state—the public sector and local government—do not and will not tolerate domestic violence.

Our government is here to support women. We know we need to pull all the levers to work hard in achieving gender equality and ending the atrocity that is domestic, sexual and family violence, and all other forms of disrespect and discrimination that disproportionately affect women in our community.

Unlike the former Liberal government—who cut services to the Women's Domestic Violence Court Assistance Service (a service that helps women with intervention order applications, variations and revocations, ending tenancies and liaising with police) and cut funding to Catherine House (which offers women fleeing domestic violence a secure and safe place to recover)—it has taken a Labor government to reinstate this funding, to bring this legislated domestic violence leave to the house. We are committed to working alongside service providers, women's organisations, and women experiencing domestic violence to do what we can to help end the scourge.

Addressing domestic and family violence is one step towards closing the gender pay gap, as women who experience violence are more likely to fall behind in their career, into low-paid and casual work or even out of the workforce entirely. We are supporting women, we believe in women, and we are standing with women to say enough is enough. I commend the bill to the house.

Ms WORTLEY (Torrens) (12:47): I welcome the opportunity to speak today on the Fair Work (Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Amendment Bill 2022 introduced by the Malinauskas Labor government—a bill for an act to amend the Fair Work Act 1994. I stand proudly that again we are fulfilling another election commitment to South Australians. Today, it is to the victim survivors of domestic violence.

The bill covers workers in the state industrial relations system that covers public sector and local government employees. The recently amended commonwealth Fair Work Act 2009 covers those in the private sector for 10 days' paid family and domestic violence leave. The application of the bill before us today will ensure workers who are victims of family and domestic violence—at a time when they are so vulnerable, often scared, feeling helpless and lost—are supported with being able to access up to 15 days' paid family and domestic violence leave for attending related medical appointments, counselling, relocation, legal proceedings and making safety arrangements.

We know that in the majority of cases (but not all) it is women who are the victims of family and domestic violence. The changes to the act promote gender equity by addressing some of the socio-economic impacts, including the loss of income and employment security. It is not right and it is not fair that those impacted by domestic violence are often forced to make a choice between financial security, independence and their safety.

The legislation before us today will go some way in supporting victim survivors, including the children whose lives are significantly impacted: the physical impact, the impact on their schooling, their day-to-day lives and their wellbeing, at the time and into the future. These changes will help support the victims in making a decision to leave the environment where the violence is occurring—the first step to an improved life for them and their family. I say that because it is not just the immediate family residing in a household that is affected by family and domestic violence. Often, it extends to family members beyond the household—to siblings, parents, grandparents and friends of the survivor victim.

There are circumstances where the ongoing violence, including coercive control, has become so unbearable, impacting so severely on the victim's wellbeing, that it has led to the victim taking their own life, just to end it. I have met with residents who have told me that tragically they lost a family member as a result of domestic violence. Tears rolled down their faces as the parent and sibling of the victim told me of the impact on their lives of losing their daughter and sister, how their lives have irreversibly changed, and how they support legislation that includes coercive control. They told me that as a government we should do whatever we can so that other families will not have to live their days as they do now.

It should never get to this. We must do all that we can to ensure that there is a way out, and I feel confident that this legislation will offer into the future a pathway that to date has not been available. This bill will provide consistency across the state industrial relations system, by inserting a new schedule 3B to the Fair Work Act, providing a minimum standard for paid family and domestic violence leave.

Family and domestic violence leave takes many forms, including physical injury, emotional psychological harm and coercive control of a person's financial, social and personal autonomy. Both full-time, part-time and casual employees are entitled to up to 15 days of paid leave each year at the employee's full rate of pay, including overtime, allowances and loadings.

Importantly, the privacy of the person accessing family and domestic leave is addressed, with confidentiality requirements of the employer. Employees can feel confident that their privacy in the workplace is protected with this bill, as it will be a criminal offence for an employer to disclose information obtained without the consent of the employee.

A former Torrens resident, who spoke and wrote to me about the impact of domestic violence, and the toll it takes on the victim at a time in their life when they feel most vulnerable, told me that the impact of this legislation before us today can and will be life changing. She said, 'You miss days, if not weeks of work. You try and juggle counselling sessions for your kids and you, medical appointments, lawyer visits for document preparation, court appearances, all on top of leaving the family home and having to find rental accommodation. That's why the paid domestic violence leave allocation to the Fair Work Act is fair. It means you don't have to take leave without pay. It means you can feed your kids and pay a bond and the required rent in advance to put a roof over your head. These legislative changes change lives,' she told me.

Our government is determined to address the issue of family and domestic violence in this bill, and with other measures, including those already mentioned by my colleagues, such as reinstating funding to Catherine House. I commend the bill to the house.

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (12:53): I also rise to indicate my support for the Fair Work (Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Amendment Bill 2022. Much has been said, and people have gone over what the legislative changes are, so I am not going to add to that in any significant sense except to say that the nub of this bill is to provide 15 days' leave for public servants in this state, and employees of councils, and it comes on top of the Albanese government's initiative to provide 10 days' leave for the private sector.

Any response to domestic violence is going to be layered: elements of it are going to be complex. We can bring about legislative changes and that is important. There are things that we can do as communities and there are things that we can do when it comes to speaking out. The hard challenge is shifting culture so we do not see the death of a woman every 10 days as a result of intimate partner violence. Changing the culture is the challenging part. To a significant degree we still live in a patriarchal culture with, at times, a lot of unspoken assumptions, and misogyny is still a real force in parts of our society.

When I look at some of the communities I represent, the experience of domestic violence can sometimes be different, to a degree. The city always strikes me as somewhat amorphous. There might be local identity in some areas, but when you look at regional communities they have a very strong self-identity, so when someone loses their life as a result of domestic violence the odds are you going to know that person or you are going to know family members or other people related to that person.

Some years ago in Whyalla I attended the opening of a monument to remember those women in our community who have lost their lives as a result of domestic violence. Being at the launch of that memorial it came to mind the number of those women I knew, either directly or indirectly, in my community, and the impact it had on me and the impact it had on others. All the deaths were terrible, but one or two of them were particularly brutal.

I sometimes have people in my community say, 'The police are never around.' That is because these days they focus on some things that are incredibly important. In years gone by—as has been touched on by other speakers—domestic violence was not treated with the seriousness it deserved. It is now, and I do not begrudge the focus of the police when it comes to being the first responders on domestic violence.

If I look wider in my electorate, there are areas where the violence can be intense. I know the statistics but statistics are cold, when you consider that an Aboriginal woman—and I have a number of Aboriginal communities in my electorate—is 45 times more likely to be a victim of domestic violence or violence than a white woman, and they are five times more likely to be hospitalised. Consider some of the statistics that have come out of Alice Springs: I think there are 14 to 15 beds in the intensive care unit there and, of those, all but one was occupied by an Aboriginal woman who had been incredibly severely bashed. Some of the injuries we are talking about were horrendous.

Of course, legislation like this is not going to make any difference to that particular set of circumstances—that is not to say this bad legislation, quite the opposite—but this is a layered approach. When I look at some of the communities I represent, clearly a lot more needs to be done. I am not trying to imply here that this is just an Aboriginal issue; clearly it is not. When you look at our overall population, most of the women dying are white women, scattered throughout our nation.

It is interesting to note the approach we have taken, in years gone by, to terrorism; it is less so now, but in years gone by one or two people might be killed domestically, and look at the approach that was taken. I do not begrudge that approach, but when you look at the rate of very serious injury, at the rate of death amongst women in Australia, do we bring the same degree of focus to that? I seek leave to conclude my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 12:59 to 14:00.

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