This bill did not become law and is no longer proceeding.
Work & employment
Australian workers and job applicants who have experienced family and domestic violence would gain a new federal protection against workplace discrimination under the Fair Work Act.
Workers experiencing family and domestic violence were left without clear federal protection from workplace discrimination, demotion or dismissal because the Fair Work Act did not treat it as a protected attributeA personal characteristic the law says employers cannot use as a reason to discriminate against someone.. This bill adds family and domestic violence to those protections, bans discriminatory terms in awards and agreements, and requires the Fair Work CommissionThe workplace tribunal that approves awards and agreements and makes decisions under the Fair Work Act. to consider preventing that discrimination.
After the Fair Work Act was amended in 2022 to give employees 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leavePaid leave for employees dealing with family and domestic violence, introduced before this bill added anti-discrimination protection., workers and job applicants who experienced family and domestic violence could still be demoted, disadvantaged or dismissed without a clear federal anti-discrimination protection unless another legal ground applied. In November 2023, Senators Jacqui Lambie and David Pocock introduced a bill to close that gap by making family and domestic violence a protected attributeA personal characteristic the law says employers cannot use as a reason to discriminate against someone. in federal workplace law, the Senate passed it on 9 November, and it was then introduced in the House of Representatives.
The main criticism was procedural rather than opposition to protecting victim-survivors: senators argued the bill was being handled in a way that either cherry-picked one reform from a wider workplace package or delayed a straightforward measure by bundling it with more contested changes. Those concerns were raised across party lines, while no party represented in the debate argued against the domestic-violence discrimination protection itself.
Senator Jacqui Lambie introduced this bill. Speeches supporting it came from Liberal Party, Jacqui Lambie Network, Greens, some crossbench members.
Did it become law?
No
The bill did not complete passage through Parliament.
Final passage
No final passage
The bill has not completed passage and is no longer proceeding.
Time before failure
7 days
From introduction to the final recorded step before the bill stopped proceeding
Meaning
Australian workers and job applicants who have experienced family and domestic violence would gain a new federal protection against workplace discrimination under the Fair Work Act.
National system employers would be barred from punishing or disadvantaging workers or job applicants because they have experienced family and domestic violence, and other employers would be barred from sacking workers for that reason.
Enterprise agreements and modern awards would not be allowed to include terms that discriminate against workers because they have experienced family and domestic violence.
The Fair Work CommissionThe workplace tribunal that approves awards and agreements and makes decisions under the Fair Work Act. would have to consider preventing discrimination against people affected by family and domestic violence when making workplace decisions under the Fair Work Act.
Subjection to family and domestic violence is not currently a protected attribute in the FW Act or other Commonwealth anti-discrimination laws but is protected by some State and Territory anti-discrimination laws. The Bill includes a new protection for employees and prospective employees by recognising subjection to Family and Domestic Violence as a protected attribute within the FW Act’s anti-discrimination provisions.Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Strengthening Protections Against Discrimination) explanatory memorandum
The Bill would prohibit a national system employer from taking adverse action against an employee or prospective employee on the basis they have experienced family and domestic violence. The amendments would also prohibit employers who are not covered by Part 3-1 of the FW Act from terminating an employee’s employment on the basis of subjection to family and domestic violence.Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Strengthening Protections Against Discrimination) explanatory memorandum
The amendments would prohibit modern awards and enterprise agreements from including terms that discriminate against employees because of, or for reasons including, their subjection to family and domestic violence. The amendments would also require the Fair Work Commission, when performing functions or exercising its powers under the FW Act in relation to a matter, to take into account the need to respect and value the diversity of the workforce by helping to prevent and eliminate discrimination on the basis of subjection to family and domestic violence.Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Strengthening Protections Against Discrimination) explanatory memorandum
Modern awards and enterprise agreements must not include terms that discriminate against employees on the basis of a range of protected attributes. By including this additional protected attribute, this Bill would ensure that employees who are subjected to FDV are also afforded equal, favourable conditions of work within the terms of modern awards and enterprise agreements. For example, if the Fair Work Commission is considering whether to approve a new enterprise agreement, the amendments would require the Fair Work Commission to be satisfied that the agreement does not include any terms that discriminate against employees on the basis of their subjection to FDV. The Bill would further promote the right to just and favourable conditions of work by requiring the FWC to take into account the need to prevent and eliminate discrimination on the basis of subjection to FDV when exercising its powers and performing its functions.Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Strengthening Protections Against Discrimination) explanatory memorandum
Context
After the Fair Work Act was amended in 2022 to give employees 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leavePaid leave for employees dealing with family and domestic violence, introduced before this bill added anti-discrimination protection., workers and job applicants who experienced family and domestic violence could still be demoted, disadvantaged or dismissed without a clear federal anti-discrimination protection unless another legal ground applied. In November 2023, Senators Jacqui Lambie and David Pocock introduced a bill to close that gap by making family and domestic violence a protected attributeA personal characteristic the law says employers cannot use as a reason to discriminate against someone. in federal workplace law, the Senate passed it on 9 November, and it was then introduced in the House of Representatives.
Paid family and domestic violence leavePaid leave for employees dealing with family and domestic violence, introduced before this bill added anti-discrimination protection. is added to the Fair Work Act
The 2022 amendments gave employees 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leavePaid leave for employees dealing with family and domestic violence, introduced before this bill added anti-discrimination protection., creating a leave right that this later bill was designed to complement with anti-discrimination protection.
Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Strengthening Protections Against Discrimination) explanatory memorandum ↗Bill is introduced to protect workers affected by family and domestic violence
The explanatory memorandum said the Fair Work Act did not clearly protect workers affected by family and domestic violence from adverse actionA harmful workplace step, such as cutting hours, demoting, or firing someone because of a protected reason., demotion or dismissal, so the bill proposed adding that status as a protected attributeA personal characteristic the law says employers cannot use as a reason to discriminate against someone..
Australian Parliament House ↗Senate passes the bill
The Senate agreed to the bill at second and third readingThe final Senate stages where the chamber debates and then votes on whether a bill should pass., advancing a standalone measure that supporters said would give urgent workplace protection to people experiencing family and domestic violence.
Parliamentary timeline ↗Bill is introduced in the House of Representatives
After clearing the Senate, the bill was presented in the House, where it would need to pass to turn the proposed new discrimination protection into law.
Parliamentary timeline ↗Legislative route
The bill was formally presented to the chamber and read a first time, which starts its parliamentary journey.
Introduced and read a first time
A minister or sponsoring member moved the second reading, opening the main debate on the bill's purpose and principles.
Second reading moved
The bill reached this recorded parliamentary step.
The chamber agreed to the bill at second reading, meaning it accepted the bill in principle and allowed it to continue.
Second reading agreed to
The chamber agreed to the bill at third reading, which completed passage through that chamber.
Third reading agreed to
The bill was formally presented to the chamber and read a first time, which starts its parliamentary journey.
Introduced and read a first time
Key criticism
The main criticism was procedural rather than opposition to protecting victim-survivors: senators argued the bill was being handled in a way that either cherry-picked one reform from a wider workplace package or delayed a straightforward measure by bundling it with more contested changes. Those concerns were raised across party lines, while no party represented in the debate argued against the domestic-violence discrimination protection itself.
Criticism focused on legislative strategy, not the policy goal of adding the protection.
Split bill leaves broader reforms behind
Murray Watt argued the bill should not be pulled out and passed on its own because that would leave other workplace reforms, including wage theft and labour hire changes, for later instead of dealing with the package together.
Bundling delayed an agreed protection
Coalition senators argued the domestic-violence discrimination measure was non-controversial and should have been separated earlier, saying Labor's decision to bundle it into a larger industrial relations package unnecessarily delayed a reform that could have passed quickly.
Further sources
Votes
No recorded votes were found before this bill stopped proceeding.
Parliamentary debate
Start here — lead voices
Lambie supports the bill and says it is long overdue because it would stop employers discriminating against workers who are experiencing family and domestic violence.
Read in Hansard ↗Watt says the government does not support the bill in its split form, because it carves out only some workplace protections and leaves other reforms, including wage theft, industrial manslaughter and labour hire loopholes, for later.
Read in Hansard ↗Barbara Pocock says the Greens support the bill because it strengthens protections against discrimination for workers experiencing family and domestic violence and should be passed quickly.
Read in Hansard ↗Pocock supports the bill and says it fixes an important gap by making domestic violence itself a protected attributeA personal characteristic the law says employers cannot use as a reason to discriminate against someone. under the Fair Work Act.
Read in Hansard ↗All speeches by bloc
2 speakers · 1 support · 1 oppose
“How can we pre-empt possible amendments by passing these provisions now?”Read the full speech in Hansard ↗
“We should be valuing a worker's life and their entitlement to be protected from their employer's negligence just as much as we should be valuing those workers who are exposed to silicosis poisoning and those first responders who need better care from our community. We should be stopping employers deliberately stealing the wages of their employees. It's not about accidental underpayments; it's about employers who know they are stealing wages from their employees. We should be fixing that this year, not saying: 'It's not a priority. We'll leave that till next year.' That is what the effect of the bills before us today would be. They are cherrypicking some things as being important but, in leaving out deliberate wage theft and the reckless killing of workers and in leaving open loopholes for labour hire workers to be exploited, we are saying that workers' rights don't matter. The government doesn't agree with that. That's exactly why we think the entire package of government legislation should be dealt with this year, rather than the Senate cherrypicking a few bits and saying of the rest of it, 'We'll get around to that one day.'”Read the full speech in Hansard ↗
3 speakers · 3 support
“Had Senator Pocock and Senator Lambie perhaps redrafted these four provisions—had they made changes to them—there may have been an argument in which the government could say: 'We need to consider them further. You've made some changes to what we had proposed. We need to consider them further.' But, you see, Senator Lambie and Senator Pocock haven't done that. The bills that are presented to this parliament are in the identical format to what is currently in the government's legislation. The only difference is employers across the nation, within reason, agree that these four elements can be passed this year and don't require any further explanation or exploration throughout the committee process. On that basis, along with the coalition, along with the crossbench, we are prepared to be constructive in relation to the government's omnibus bill and pass today those elements of the bill that do deliver for Australian workers, that do deliver for those suffering from or who have been victims of family and domestic violence, that do deliver for those who were employed by a larger business but through no fault of their own are now employed by a smaller business and may not therefore be able to get a redundancy payment, that will deliver for those in relation to the asbestos authority, now taking on the remit for silica related diseases.”Read the full speech in Hansard ↗
“The thing that we really have heard consistently in every hearing that we've held—there have been five hearings so far—is that these elements that are in the broader omnibus bill are supported. They're not controversial. There is support from everyone. There's really no reason why they should be delayed because of the examination that is required for the more controversial elements of the closing loopholes bill. So this really does need to be supported.”Read the full speech in Hansard ↗
“Senator Lambie and Senator Pocock, I congratulate you for bringing forward this set of bills, the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Small Business Redundancy Exemption) Bill 2023, the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Strengthening Protections Against Discrimination) Bill 2023, the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency) Bill 2023 and the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (First Responders) Bill 2023. You really did bell the cat, and we just heard from Senator Pratt the belling of the cat. The fact is that these bills are low-hanging fruit because I suspect it is very clear that the entire Senate supports them. We shouldn't take anyone's vote for granted, but it seems as though the entire Senate will support these bills through this chamber in a very quick fashion.”Read the full speech in Hansard ↗
1 speaker · 1 support
“In terms of protections against discrimination, we Greens are very supportive of improving protections against discrimination for employees who have been or continue to be subjected to family and domestic violence. Specifically, these measures will prohibit an employer from taking adverse action against a worker or a potential worker on the basis that they've experienced family and domestic violence.”Read the full speech in Hansard ↗
2 speakers · 2 support
“It is a commonsense measure that is long overdue and will undoubtedly help to save lives.”Read the full speech in Hansard ↗
“The Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Strengthening Protections Against Discrimination) Bill 2023 corrects an oversight on the part of all of us when we were establishing the family and domestic violence leave entitlement last year. While it is illegal for an employer to discriminate against someone for taking family and domestic violence leave, it's not technically illegal for an employer to discriminate against someone on the basis that they're experiencing domestic violence. This bill fixes that by making a subjection to family and domestic violence a protected attribute under the Fair Work Act. In practice, women's legal services have told me it will be a nuanced but very important protection that will ensure people are protected from discrimination before they're ready to access their family and domestic violence leave entitlement. Sadly, we know that, despite the new national plan, family and domestic violence is on the rise.”Read the full speech in Hansard ↗
Record
Senate · Introduced and read a first time
Introduced
The bill was formally presented to the chamber and read a first time, which starts its parliamentary journey.
Senate · Second reading moved
Second reading opened
A minister or sponsoring member moved the second reading, opening the main debate on the bill's purpose and principles.
Senate · Second reading debate
Second reading debate
The bill reached this recorded parliamentary step.
Senate · Second reading agreed to
Second reading agreed
The chamber agreed to the bill at second reading, meaning it accepted the bill in principle and allowed it to continue.
Senate · Third reading agreed to
Third reading agreed
The chamber agreed to the bill at third reading, which completed passage through that chamber.
House · Introduced and read a first time
Introduced
The bill was formally presented to the chamber and read a first time, which starts its parliamentary journey.
