The Greens

In the last parliament the Greens committed to systemic changes including independent analysis of gender responsiveness of budget measures, requiring gender equality analysis on new legislation, and increasing the powers of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency. They’ve made a number of significant commitments to address the gender pay gap; are committed to increasing parental leave; make childcare and early childhood education free; and to take action for people with disability.

The Greens policy includes providing increased, long-term secure funding support for Our Watch, but this isn’t clear on specifics. They have made a significant funding commitment to support national rollout of expert-led respectful relationships in all public schools. However they have not made specific commitments to develop the workforce needed to drive prevention work at scale. (View the full analysis here)

In the last parliament the Greens policy for $12 billion over 12 years to support the National Plan was in line with the scale and long-term resourcing ask from advocates. The Greens' focus on specialist services, and serving the safety needs of those affected by intersecting disadvantage was important and positive. However it was not clear how their funding commitment would be directed between the range of prevention, response, recovery services that make up the response safety net - particularly to intervene with perpetrators and to support women on temporary visas. More detail would be needed to understand exactly how the funds the Greens support would be distributed. (View the full analysis here)

In the last parliament the Greens voted for key changes needed to improve the safety of legal and institutional systems. 

The Greens are committed to ongoing reform of the family law systems, including training for legal professionals. In the lead up to the 2019 election the Greens committed to safety advocates’ calls for an independent and expert-led Taskforce on campus sexual violence. The Greens also put forward a justice reinvestment initiative to support accountability for perpetrators while ensuring the safety and well-being of victim-survivors. The Greens support 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave for all workers, and voted against the abolition of the Family Court, in line with the recommendations of key women’s safety advocates. (View the full analysis here)

In the last parliament the Greens voted in support of the Coalition’s legislation enacting some changes from the Respect@Work report. They also voted for amendments that would have implemented additional recommendations - introducing a positive duty on all employers to eliminate sex discrimination and harassment, providing the Commission with new inquiry power; allowing unions and other representative groups to bring representative claims to court; introducing a cost protection provision; reviewing the Fair Work system to expressly prohibit sexual harassment; and introducing a ‘stop sexual harassment order’ into the Fair Work Act. (View the full analysis here)