THE ALP national conference carried a motion stating Labor was committed to domestic violence leave as a universal workplace right with "appropriate" paid leave and employer support.

CFMEU West Australian assistant state secretary Joe McDonald said for too long nothing had been done to address domestic violence, passionately urging Labor to follow through on the motion. "Paid leave is only a start," he told the conference in Melbourne on Sunday. "Somewhere on the street where you live there is a war in the kitchen for somebody. "F***ing stop it, f***ing fix it, do something about it." Queensland Council of Unions assistant general secretary Ros McLennan said 1.5 million workers had access to paid domestic violence leave thanks to unions but many more did not. "At this ALP national conference Labor has an opportunity to do something about domestic violence - not talk about it, to do something about domestic violence," she said. She said domestic violence cost the economy almost $17 billion every year. "There's a national momentum for change and the cost of ignoring the domestic violence crisis is too high. "It's time to be clear about what we stand for."