Employment Minister Tony Burke has introduced a bill in parliament ((Thu)) to legislate 10 days of paid domestic violence leave. If passed, it will allow 11 million eligible workers - including casuals - to access leave to escape family violence situations.
The scheme is to begin in February next year, but small businesses will get an extra six months to adjust. Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott says small businesses will need time and resources.
"We've been a strong advocate for domestic violence leave, many of the large companies have led the way here and been doing it. Obviously there are some transition issues, implementation issues, particularly for small business but this is really important to give victims of domestic violence an opportunity to get their lives together."
Meanwhile, Australia's inflation rate rose from 5.1 per cent to 6.1 per cent. And while the Reserve Bank had anticipated inflation would hit up to 7 per cent by the end of the year, that expectation has now been increased to 7.75 per cent.
Economist Chris Richardson says it's not good news for households or the nation.
"There's a lot of bad news, especially for families; basically prices are going much faster than wages and it stays around for a while, the cut to our spending power, really really large and it's happening at the same time as interest rates are going up and that combination says that the economy's growth will be weaker."
