Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2020-2021 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2020-2021, and to make some points about how on earth we in this place can be taken seriously in terms of any bills while the debate about the culture in this place, the culture that is owned by the government of the day, rages around the country. There can be no shirking of that responsibility at all. The way this parliament operates, as a parliament and as a workplace, rests on the shoulders of those opposite. They fought to fill those benches. They wanted to form government. The Prime Minister wanted to be elected Prime Minister of this country. They must take responsibility for the culture in this place, but not just in this place; when you form government you take responsibility for the country, for the culture in our schools, for the culture in our workplaces, for the delivery of health and education across our nation—yes, for Treasury, and, yes, for appropriation, but also for everything else that happens across this country. After eight years this government must be held responsible for the culture, for the misogyny and for the sexual harassment and sexual assault of people working in this building.

I know that my colleagues will not walk away from this. We will stand and remind this government and the rest of the country every day that misogyny has no place in this chamber, in this building, in any town or suburb in this country and in Australia. We will not be the country we were destined to be until we reach gender equality, and what we have seen in the past week is an incredible pull-up—a reminder to every man, woman and child in this country that we are so far from reaching that goal.

If you check the things the government determine they're going to legislate in this place, you will see that culture writ large. It doesn't take much to dig through it. I come into this chamber today and see sitting on the frontbench ministers who were sacked or who resigned as ministers but returned to the ministry. As a schoolteacher and as a parent, let me tell you: if you pull the detention or withdraw the punishment, you have condoned the behaviour. When ministers resign in disgrace or are asked to leave because they have breached ministerial standards and then return to the frontbench after allowing an amount of time to pass, it's a very strong message that ministerial standards don't matter in this place. That's the culture this government has set. That is the absolute culture of this place.

The reports last night of the behaviour of some people in this place are not a surprise to me. Of that behaviour, I would say one thing: we have come across the last month. Every woman and man in this building is dealing with the fact that an alleged rape occurred in this building, that it was not the first time the accused had been reported and that no action was taken. We're all coming to terms with that having happened in our workplace. We're coming to terms with the fact that people who are employed in this building feel that they have a right to rape a colleague. Last night we saw absolute disregard for the dignity of this place and this building in the reports we heard about staff members' behaviour. Let's make no mistake rape is about power. Everyone has been twisting their words about what the video supposedly showed last night in terms of that lewd act. It has been described a millions ways. It was an act of absolute misogyny is what it was. It was a put down of a female MP in this place. It was a male staff member saying, 'I'm the boss around here' that's what it was. Don't kid yourself it was anything else. That's what it was. That is what rape is.

We are at an absolutely critical point in the Australian parliament, in every state parliament around the country, in every classroom around the country. What culture do we want to create? What culture do we want to sustain? How do we go about improving that culture? The Prime Minister talked for 40 minutes today and my takeaway was: 'It's all too hard. It's not my job. Please somebody—it happens everywhere. It is not my responsibility.' Prime Minister, when you raised your hand to be Prime Minister you took on that responsibility.

I want to go back in time. I want to say to the women opposite who sit on those chambers: please, we are your colleagues. We will support you. Critical mass is the secret to this. Getting more women on your benches is the way through this—a critical mass of women. As the shadow minister for women said this morning: 'We women in this place are not here to police men's behaviour but it's amazing how men's behaviour changes when you put women in the place.'

On this side we're very proud of our feminist tradition in the Labor Party. We're very proud of it. I've been haunted today by a speech made by my predecessor Julia Gillard where she warned that if we installed a Liberal government women's voices would be taken out of the centre of government and replaced by men in blue ties. Gillard is a warrior for me. She's someone that I look up to. She's somebody who took this place seriously. She's someone who managed to put through more pieces of legislation than we've seen since. She's someone who managed to lead a minority government, someone who managed to ensure that the members of the government were in their seats when a vote was to be taken every day and never lost a vote. She was a warrior. She is a woman very proud to have taken her place in this chamber and her place as Prime Minister.

I say to those opposite, particularly the women opposite, whoever is your warrior—be it Xena, be it Thatcher, be it Cowan—channel her this week in this place. Stand firm. Let Australia know that you will not be leaving this building. In fact you will be planning to bring more women into this building because we need you to bring more women into this building. We need you to do the work that my predecessors in the Labor Party did. We need you to dig deep to challenge the men in your party, to stand for pre-selection, to get yourselves to this place because we will not change the culture here until that happens. We will not change the culture while we have a government that says, 'You've crossed a line. Ministerial standards have been breached here. Off you go to the back bench', but then brings them back and puts them back on the front bench.

We will not change the culture while we have scandals like sports rorts going on. We won't change the culture while the public think that if you're in a Liberal or a National electorate you're likely to get a bigger cut of the pie—and I'm sorry but that's what the public think. They think that because this government has demonstrated to them that that's what they think, not just in those sports grants but also in the community grants.

Let's not forget, when I first came to this place there was a stronger regions grant, that a Labor government had introduced, that was available to every region in the country. One of the first acts of this government was to reduce that to only—let's be blunt—National seats. A region like mine—a growth corridor that is growing at a rate of knots—was completely locked out of that program. People who live in my community understand what that means. The people in my community sent me here. They sent a woman to this parliament. Men and women voted to send a woman here, and everyone in my community that votes for me knows they're sending someone to this parliament who's going to stand up and call the rubbish out. That's what I'm doing today; I'm going to call the rubbish out. I watched the Prime Minister's press conference and I was appalled.

On Friday, I sat with students in my electorate, in my SRC forums—in the morning with primary school student leaders and in the afternoon with high school student leaders. I lost sleep about doing this forum on Friday after the month we'd had, after the whole world was looking at this place and wondering what on earth we do up here. I reminded myself that these young people are student leaders from schools in the electorate and every year, when I do this work with them, they can all tell me that their schools have stated values and that they're asked to live those values. When they shared them on Friday, no surprise, what's the No. 1 value that schools in my electorate choose to list and state in their foyers and around their playgrounds? The No. 1value is respect. Those young people, as young as grade 4, know that they're part of building a culture. They know what culture it is that they're expected to uphold in their school. They know that, as leaders in that school, they should have a plan to sustain that culture, build on that culture and improve that culture.

If they understand it, Prime Minister, why can't you understand it? Leadership means that you take responsibility for the culture. As Prime Minister, you take responsibility for the culture of our nation. So if you don't intend to make this country more equal, if you don't intend to pursue gender equity, come inside here and say so. Be honest with the Australian public. If it's not your work, whose is it? Everybody who sits on the government bench has to take responsibility as well. You're leaders in your own communities. What have you had to say about what we've learnt in this place in the last month? What did you have to say about ministers removing themselves, or being removed, because of breaches of ministerial standards? What did you have to say when they were publicly brought back onto the front bench? What did you have to say about sports rorts? You are the culture. We are leaders in this place of this country, and school children around the nation are looking at us now. They understand it. You should understand it.

As a government, you are failing Australia now. Be honest. Set out your agenda. If your agenda doesn't include gender equity, if it doesn't include action on ensuring women's safety, say so. I can assure you that, in my electorate, men, women and children want to know that that is your objective. They want to know that you have the highest aspirations for this country—and those aspirations start with equity, those aspirations start with making sure that every Australian counts. As a woman, I need to know that you value me as much as you do my colleague the member for Bruce. I need to know that you value all of us; that's what I need to know. With only a minute left in my contribution on the appropriation bills, I say to the Prime Minister: if you show leadership in this, you will be amazed at the response you receive. If you can demonstrate that you care about equity, if you demonstrate that you care about women's safety in this building—let's face it, Prime Minister, the journey to make every woman safe in every work place, in every place, in every street and in every home starts in this place. We can't rely on 'ground up' here, Prime Minister. Do your job.

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