Victoria and Queensland have launched a concerted push to convince all jurisdictions, state, territory and federal, to agree on concrete measures to help victims of family violence.
The two states will urge leaders gathering in Canberra for the Council of Australian Governments meeting on Friday to introduce family violence leave as a workplace entitlement.
Victoria is also pushing for a new Medicare item for family violence counselling and changes to the family court to improve information sharing between jurisdictions.
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, told Guardian Australia on Thursday all leaders needed to seriously consider a Victorian submission to Coag on national recommendations from the Victorian royal commission into family violence.
“Women experiencing family violence should not be disadvantaged in the workplace – and their employers should be able to provide support when it’s most needed,” Andrews said Thursday. “I can think of no good reason why we could not all agree on that.”
In addition to the conversation about domestic violence, a copy of the Coag agenda obtained by Guardian Australia says the leaders will discuss:
- economic reform, including competition policy, housing and homelessness;
- the national energy market and the Finkel review into energy security and Australia’s climate change commitments;
- health and hospitals funding – with the key issue being what happens to funding after 2020;
- several agenda items on Indigenous affairs;
- the national firearms agreement and the regulation of the Adler shotgun;
- water allocations in the Murray-Darling Basin.
The Coag meeting will be preceded by a meeting between Malcolm Turnbull and leaders representing northern Australia – the premiers of Queensland and Western Australia and the chief minister of the Northern Territory.
Before the domestic violence discussion, an alliance of welfare organisations have penned a joint letter to the leaders calling on them to commit to the “urgent implementation” of recommendations from the Victorian royal commission into family violence.
Those recommendations include introducing family violence leave into the national employment standards, restoring funding the legal aid, overhauling elements of the family law regime, protecting people with disabilities, who are at high risk of family violence, and introducing the Medicare counselling item.
