What The Albanese Government Needs To Do To Address Women’s Safety

Following the federal election over the weekend, women's safety advocates are holding Anthony Albanese and the federal government to account on addressing family, domestic and sexual violence issues.

Dr Sonia Palmieri, a Gender Policy Fellow at the Australian National University, says this election was "the right time to test a government's understanding" that "no democracy can be built on gender inequality". Violence against women is a national crisis that many female voters weren't willing to ignore, especially due to raised awareness after women like Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame called for more action, the #March4Justice rallies, and the Australian Human Rights Commission's inquiry into sexual harassment in the workplace.

"The political mobilisation around women’s safety — expressed in marches and keynote speeches, media debates and blogs — is a clear admission of the adverse impact on women’s lives and livelihoods, including those of young women, when they are the subject of violence," Palmieri tells Refinery29 Australia.

"Violence — be it physical, economic, psychological, or verbal — renders women less able to participate in our economy, our society. It silences women and robs them of their rights to equality."

Palmieri says the Albanese government "needs to make a raft of changes that demonstrate to the Australian people how seriously it takes women’s safety." She believes workplace environments need to become safer for women, while sexual consent education in schools also needs to be reformed.

"For a start, the government will need to continue to work with various communities to implement the recommendations of three Jenkins reports — Change the Course, Respect@Work and Set the Standard," says Palmieri.

In March 2020, the Australian Human Rights Commission released its Respect@Work report, the product of an 18-month inquiry – led by Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins – into sexual harassment in Australian workplaces.

The report’s findings were based on a survey of 10,000 workers, 460 written submissions and 60 public consultations with 600 participants. Within the report were 55 recommendations for government, business and community sectors to consider. Recommendations were made across five focus areas: data and research, primary prevention, a refocused legal and regulatory framework, and better support, advice and advocacy. 

In September last year, the Morrison government proposed to implement six of the 55 recommendations. Ahead of the 2022 election, Albanese promised that if elected, the Labor party would implement all 55 recommendations of the Respect@Work report.

One of the recommendations met with a sense of urgency from safety advocates is Recommendation 17, whereby the Sex Discrimination Act would be amended to introduce a positive duty on all employers to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate sex discrimination, sexual harassment and victimisation.

The implementation of recommendation 49 is a high priority for Working Women's Centres, which are free frontline services currently providing women in the NT, SA and QLD with support and advice on work-related matters including underpayment, wage theft, parental leave, bullying and workplace sexual harassment and assault. 

Recommendation 49 suggests that governments should provide "increased and recurrent funding to working women’s centres" and consider establishing or re-establishing Working Women’s Centres in jurisdictions where they do not currently exist. 

Abbey Kendall, the director of the SA Working Women’s Centre, tells Refinery29 it's pleasing to hear that the new government will prioritise the implementation of all of the recommendations.

"The Labor party has promised 24 million dollars to establish and fund Working Women’s Centres across the country. We welcome this promise," says Kendall.

"It’s the type of investment that will see a network of centres, executing the holistic model of service endorsed by Respect@Work report, make a real dent in the elimination of sexual harassment in workplaces."

Jenkins launched the report Set The Standard last November, which found that one in three employees currently in CPWs (Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces) reported having experienced sexual harassment while working there.

The Human Rights Commission then put forward 28 recommendations to guide parliamentary workplaces in improving their culture to the standards expected of all Australian workplaces. The recommendations sit under a framework underpinned by five key principles:

1. Leadership – Strengthening institutional and individual leadership to ensure a safe and respectful work environment.

2. Diversity, equality and inclusion – Including targets to increase gender equality, as well as representation of First Nations people, people from CALD backgrounds, people with disability, and LGBTQI+ people in parliamentary workplaces.

3. Systems to support performance – Establishing a centralised Office for Staffing and Culture to support parliamentarians and their staff. This office will have the ability to set and enforce standardised HR policies and processes.

4. Standards, reporting and accountability – Establishing an Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission to provide safe and supported reporting options. It will also oversee and enforce Codes of Conduct to hold people to account for misconduct through sanctions.

5. Safety and wellbeing – Including developing and implementing consistent and comprehensive alcohol policies across CWPs with a view to restricting availability in line with work health and safety obligations, and the principle of harm minimisation.

"Universities, public and private workplaces, and the commonwealth parliamentary workplaces all need to become safe spaces for women — and accept that they are currently not," says Palmieri. "This will require partnership building and significant resources."

In February, Albanese told the House of Representatives, "We are committing to change."

"We can make a difference, but it will take real and sustained effort to create the lasting cultural change that we need. I believe we can do it. I know that we have to," he said.

"How we can start doing that is by working across the parliament to implement every single recommendation of the Jenkins report. That is the absolute minimum we should be doing for the staff who are in so many ways the fuel in the engine of parliament."

In 2017, the Australian Human Rights Commission conducted a national, independent survey of university students across 39 universities in Australia to better understand "the prevalence and nature of sexual assault and sexual harassment at all Australian universities."

Nine recommendations were then made (eight directed to universities and one to university colleges), focusing on five areas of action: Leadership and governance, Changing attitudes and behaviours, University responses to sexual assault and sexual harassment, Monitoring and evaluation, and Residential colleges and university residences.

While universities have been working at different rates to implement recommendations, safety advocate Amanda Morgan believes the Morrison government did "little to address sexual violence on university campus" and the new government now has an opportunity to look at the results of the The National Student Safety Survey (NSSS) released in March and make an impact.

The NSSS gathered data about the nature and scale of university student experiences of sexual harassment and sexual assault. Its results found 1 in 6 students have faced sexual harassment since starting university, and 1 in 2 know "nothing or very little about the formal reporting process for harassment".

Morgan says it doesn't need to reach this point if sexual consent education in primary and secondary school is improved.

Palmieri agrees, saying "it starts with frank conversations with primary and secondary school students, their parents and teachers about the meaning of consent, and the context in which this is given."

In February, ministers of education around Australia unanimously committed to mandating holistic and appropriate consent education in every school, for every year, from foundation until year 10 – effective as of 2023.

In its election promises, Labor said it will invest $77 million to "help make sure all Australian school students are able to access high quality, age-appropriate consent and respectful relationships education."

Earlier this month and before the election, the Fair Work Commission decided that 2.66 million Australian workers covered by modern awards will have access to 10 days paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave.⁠ However, this doesn't cover over 8.44 million workers who will only be covered if the government extends it to all workers in the National Employment Standards.

In its election promises, Labor said it "will legislate 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave in the National Employment Standards."

Morgan believes it should be extended to 14 days of paid leave, and says increasing relief payments and providing emergency housing should be priorities for the new government in aiding domestic violence victims.

Melbourne artist Dans Bain made headlines in March when her 30 metre work, The Lost Petition — containing the names of 986 women and children murdered through domestic violence since 2008 — was sprawled across the grass outside Parliament House in Canberra ahead of the federal Budget.

Bain says the $5,000 Escaping Violence Payment, introduced by the Morrison government to cover victims over 12 weeks, is not enough.

"Right now women and children escaping violence get only 12 weeks of support — three months to entirely rebuild your life," she tells Refinery29.

"You need to rebuild your whole community; help kids shift schools, find a new job, new house, new bank accounts, navigate Centrelink and that’s before you get the possibility of fronting court to get a family violence order. The barriers for leaving an abusive relationship are complex; it is the most dangerous time for women leaving an abuser as they are most at risk of escalating violence."

Labor has promised to invest $1.6 billion towards towards 4,000 new social housing properties within five years for women and children fleeing family and domestic violence. It said a further $100 million will be put towards "crisis and transitional housing options for women and children escaping violence and for older women on low incomes who are at risk of homelessness."

After being displayed in Canberra, Bain's artwork was inside Her Place Women’s Museum in Melbourne alongside the Emily’s List exhibition.  Her Place Women’s Museum in Melbourne, before she was asked to remove it by Emily's List due to its proximity to their exhibition and the triggering nature of the work.

"I was devastated, not only did I feel like I was letting down the families of victims listed on The Lost Petition, but all families and survivors who are affected by male violence," she says.

In her opinion, this situation reminded her that voices speaking up about violence against women can often be silenced.

"The removal of this work sends a clear signal that these women and children murdered at the hands of men are an inconvenience to be hidden away," she says.

Morgan, a proud Yorta Yorta woman, made it her mission earlier this year to found Make A Seat Australia, an initiative to amplify historically excluded survivors of gendered violence. It will officially launch later in the year.

"It consists of an open letter to the media, politicians, events organisers, facilitators and advocates to invite an historically excluded survivor as their plus one to opportunities such as events, panels, write op-eds — make it known that they won’t speak unless they both get to speak, and openly discuss speaking fees for paid opportunities," she says.

The biggest point Morgan wants to drive home is that the government must remember to approach violence against women and children from an intersectional perspective.

"The next government needs to recognise that women’s safety is not a one stop shop. Violence is gendered, and violence is intersectional," she explains.

"Survivors of violence are often people of colour, people in the queer community, and people with disabilities. Safety is intersectional."

"Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and non-binary people must have access to culturally safe support services from self-determined, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community controlled organisations," she says. And, their voices must be heard.

"Young people need to know that sexual and domestic violence survivors, especially First Nations survivors, have the answers. We have been telling the government what we need for years, and everyone needs to listen.

"It's not an individual issue, it's a community issue. Underrepresented survivors need to be centred. Ignoring, silencing and displacing our voices are also forms of violence."

If you or anyone you know has experienced sexual or domestic violence and is in need of support, please call 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), the National Sexual Assault Domestic Family Violence Service.