Kicking Goals
We’ve had another win!
In a previous Jacqui’s Journal, I told you about the Australia Wine Tourism and Cellar Door grants program. The program hadn’t opened for this year, and the Government hadn’t told wine makers what was going on. Vineyards were telling me they might have to put off staff without the grant.
The budget has delivered good news: the grant is staying! I thank Minister Watt and the Government for listening to the industry. Thank you also to the vineyards in Tasmania who talked to me about this issue and made their voices heard. When we all work together, anything is possible.
Domestic violence
You all know that I’ve been pushing for amendments to Paid Domestic Violence Leave. I wanted to see the name changed to ‘Emergency Leave’ and have it combined with compassionate leave. I truly believe that this amendment could have saved lives. It would have meant that people going through domestic violence didn’t have to give up their privacy to get the leave.
Unfortunately, this amendment didn’t get up. I’m pretty disappointed because it could have made a decent bill, a really good one.
However I did get support for one amendment, which addresses an issue where survivors could be outed by their employer in situations where they work with their abuser. The amendment makes it clear that employers can't use the information provided by an employee in the course of seeking family and domestic violence leave to take action against another employee—not without consent.
This is my very first amendment that’s been passed, and I’m glad it was for something as important as this.
You can read the full speech I gave in Parliament 'Paid family and domestic violence leave' is the wrong name.
