Albanese government commits to embedding paid family and domestic violence leave

With the campaign trail for the upcoming federal election heating up, the Albanese government has announced it is reaffirming its commitment to embedding the right to paid family and domestic violence leave.

An independent review into the paid family and domestic violence leave conducted by Flinders University has wrapped up, with the takeaway being that the leave was “life changing”.

The report that accessed the leave application included five recommendations the government quickly accepted and is now working to implement. These recommendations involved:

• Continued focus on raising awareness to integrate the leave as an ordinary workplace practice across Australian workplaces.

• Tailored guidance for priority cohorts, such as First Nations, culturally and linguistically diverse and casual employees.

• Training programs for first responders, health, allied health and community frontline workers who commonly interact with victim-survivors on the entitlement.

• Additional strategies to improve awareness and access to the entitlement, opportunities to better understand the usage of the leave, and further evaluation of the leave through the upcoming statutory review of Closing Loopholes reform.

“Since coming to government, we have been deeply committed to ending gender-based violence – we were proud to introduce paid domestic and family violence leave as some of our first legislation, and the independent review has demonstrated its life-changing impact,” said Minister for Women Katy Gallagher.

A key finding in the report was that despite the success of the leave, many workers still lack a general understanding of the leave entitlement throughout various communities and workplaces. Stigma and judgement around family and domestic violence were also found to be a barrier to workers accessing the entitlement.

“Paid family and domestic violence leave from work will save lives,” said Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth.

“This entitlement will allow victim-survivors to take time off to keep themselves and their family safe, without losing their income or their jobs.”

“Everyone has a role to play to end violence against women and children. It’s vital that first responders and frontline workers have the right training and education about paid family and domestic leave, so that they can best support victim-survivors of family and domestic violence.”

Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Murray Watt took aim at the opposition party, which has been announcing the potential rollbacks of various Albanese-implemented workplace policies – if they are successful in the upcoming election.

“This leave has been life changing for Australians so far, and the Albanese Labor government is committed to raising awareness, understanding and uptake so that anyone who would benefit from this leave can access it,” Minister Watt said.

“But it’s under threat from Peter Dutton and the Coalition – shadow minister for employment and workplace relations Michaelia Cash claimed paid family and domestic violence leave is a ‘perverse disincentive’ to employers hiring women.

“Peter Dutton and the Coalition need to tell Australians whether this leave will be part of the ‘targeted set of repeals’ of workplace laws they’ve promised to take to the election.”

Kace O'Neill

Kace O'Neill is a Graduate Journalist for HR Leader. Kace studied Media Communications and Maori studies at the University of Otago, he has a passion for sports and storytelling.