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Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Our membership is overwhelmingly male. This is something that’s slowly changing, and that’s a good thing. But it is important for organisations like the ETU to speak loudly, clearly and unambiguously about violence against women, because it’s men who must stop perpetrating it.

Violence against women is about control. It stems from men who feel inadequate, acting on a need to control their families, and using fear, pain, intimidation and torture.

And it occurs behind closed doors, where the women and children who suffer from it are isolated from help. As a society we must open those doors and bring it into the light.

We must listen to stories that make us feel scared and uncomfortable, and ask questions that we would rather not answer. This is not pleasant, or an easy task, but it is urgently necessary if we are to live in a country where equality and liberty are meaningful concepts.

And we must take what we learn from this process and establish policies to help the women who have survived this violence to build lives where they are safe.

This is why the ETU is 100 percent behind the introduction of domestic violence leave to all Australian work agreements. Often those who abuse women target them at work because their routine is predictable. It should not be so easy for them.

Domestic violence leave will enable women living in abusive relationships to take the steps needed to escape their tormentors and end their pain. It’s not the only thing we can do, but it is unambiguously needed and long overdue.

This is one step that we can take towards living in a future where domestic violence is history – one in which the 70 women who have been killed by their partners this year would not have died.

We look forward to the day that this is a reality.