evidoria

← Back to browse

Good practice Imported

Australia's 10 Days' Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave — a World-First Universal National Entitlement

Australia · Canberra · See the Australia profile · See the Canberra profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 26% 85/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Since 2023, all Australian employees — including casuals — have a legislated right to 10 days of paid leave to deal with family and domestic violence; an independent 2024 review found it life-changing for users but under-used due to low awareness.

39 %
Leave used to engage with police (2023-2024)
>20 %
Leave used to access medical or legal support (2023-2024)
Australia's 10 Days' Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave — a World-First Universal National Entitlement

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Australian Government — Department of Employment and Workplace Relations / Fair Work Commission, under the Fair Work Amendment (Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Act 2022
Period
2022 (legislated) – 1 Feb 2023 (large employers) / 1 Aug 2023 (small employers) – present
Keywords
employment law, workplace policy, domestic violence support, national employment standards

Context

The Fair Work Amendment (Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Act 2022, passed by the Australian Parliament on 27 October 2022, added 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave to the National Employment Standards, the minimum entitlements underpinning every employment contract in the country.

Objectives

To give every Australian employee, including casuals, a legislated, paid entitlement enabling them to address family and domestic violence without risking income or their job.

Activities

The entitlement took effect for employers with 15 or more employees on 1 February 2023 and extended to smaller employers on 1 August 2023. An independent statutory review, conducted by Flinders University and released by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations in 2024, assessed its operation.

Results

The review found broad support from both employers and unions. Victim-survivors who used the leave reported it enabled them to address their safety without risking income or their job: 39% of users took leave to engage with police and more than 20% to access medical or legal support. The review also found the entitlement under-used in its first year, with stigma and low awareness among both employees and employers cited as the main barriers to take-up.

Conclusions

The review issued five recommendations, chiefly around raising awareness, rather than declaring the policy a settled success. Australia remains one of the first countries to legislate a universal, paid, national entitlement of this kind covering full-time, part-time and casual employees alike.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — Paid leave cost is borne by individual employers as part of the National Employment Standards; no dedicated government programme budget is involved.
Time to results
Short (< 1 year) — Legislated October 2022; effective for employers with 15+ staff from 1 February 2023 and for all employers from 1 August 2023; first independent review published 2024.
Staffing & skills
Employers administer the leave under the National Employment Standards; the Fair Work Commission oversees compliance; the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations commissioned the independent review

Conditions for success

  • Universal coverage, including casual employees, rather than a carve-out
  • A published independent statutory review to monitor uptake and identify barriers

Common failure modes

  • Low awareness among both employees and employers, and stigma, left the entitlement under-used in its first year

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

Replication kit

Reusable artefacts from this practice — as published by their sources.

Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

Similar practices you may find useful