Page 2502 - Week 07 - Thursday, 3 August 2017
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financial stress that comes to single parents through cuts like those of 2013 really has a significant effect, but then there is the flow-on from that. Often when people are experiencing or have experienced issues like domestic and family violence, being able to access financial support is incredibly difficult. Then there all the other processes a person might need to go through—whether that is court appearances, working out how to find a home for you and your children, and determining whether you are the primary carer or not. All of those issues are impacted by your ability to continue to work, if you are working in the first place.
That is why the ACT government provided access to domestic and family violence leave for its workforce. The ACT government provides 20 days additional leave for people who have experienced or are experiencing domestic and family violence so that they can access that leave over and above any other leave they would be entitled to, so that they can move themselves on, move their children to safety, deal with injuries if they need to, go to medical appointments and at the same time not be judged by others and not eat into any other leave provisions.
The ACT government has been calling on the federal government for some time to have this leave included as a national employment standard, but at this stage that has not been the case. Whilst I have heard some employer organisations say that employers will just allow the leave to occur, it is more than just an entitlement to leave; it is about building on a cultural change we are trying to commit to as a community. It is about how we have respectful relationships and how, together as a community, we deal with this terrible issue of domestic and family violence. It is more than just a leave entitlement; it is about building on a culture we want to change in our community.
We need to end domestic and family violence, and that goes beyond what happens in your home. Each of us needs to know what is going on and reach out to people who need support in different kinds of ways, whether that is in our workplaces or within our neighbourhoods. That is why domestic and family violence leave has been such an important entitlement for people who have experienced it, over and above any of their other entitlements.
The impact of financial abuse post-separation has been particularly stark for women interviewed as part of the recent ANROWS analysis with the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The analysis showed that ex-partners denied or misused access to financial or material resources to maintain abuse and control after separation, resulting for some women in periods of homelessness or housing problems, the loss of employment, and a post-separation lifestyle marked by poverty and instability. This confirms the need for women and men who are single parents to be able to access an entitlement to leave that will allow them to get control over their lives and also their finances, which are a very important part of that.
Mr Steel commented on early childhood education and access to out of hours education, particularly for women, but for single parents more generally. One of the biggest issues the ACT is facing in funding for early childhood education is continued funding from the federal government, through a partnership agreement on universal
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