Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The past week we have rightly had a spotlight on the issue of treatment of women in this place and in society more broadly. The Prime Minister yesterday said that he wanted to listen to the women of Australia and that he wanted women to have every opportunity that men have in our country—to do what they want to do, to succeed and to live the lives they want in every way. While we've heard a lot of words from the Prime Minister, I'm going to ask this very simple question: where are the actions necessary to make those goals a reality?

There are no shortage of ideas to help end systemic gendered bias, discrimination and harassment, and, worse, sexual assault and violence within our society. There is of course not one thing, program or fund that will fix everything, but there are countless ideas—policies, programs and potential funding commitments—that do exist, that are ready to go and that would be tangible action that this government could commit to right now that would make a real difference to women's lives across the country. This is not just talk; it's action.

Prime Minister, here are just a few ideas. Launch an independent inquiry into allegations against the Attorney-General. Introduce quotas for women in the Liberal Party. The Prime Minister says he's open to it—just do it! We did it, in the Australian Labor Party, and we have almost 50 per cent women MPs. Accept and implement the 55 recommendations of the Respect@Work sexual harassment national inquiry report of 2020, which has been gathering dust on the Attorney-General's desk for almost a year. Launch a national education program to teach our young people about consent. Properly fund domestic violence prevention campaigns. Properly fund domestic violence support programs for survivors. Invest in women's sport at the same rate as men's sport. Invest in programs to get more women and girls into sectors that are more highly paid and—surprise, surprise—tend to be male dominated: science, technology, medicine and the trades. Raise the pay and standards for sectors that are often dominated by women: teaching, nursing, aged care and hospitality. Close the gender pay gap once and for all.

If the Prime Minister doesn't know how to approach this one, take some ideas from Labor policy. We will give him bipartisan support. We will support him if he puts these ideas into action. Legislate so that large companies have to disclose their gender pay gap publicly. Prohibit pay secrecy clauses, giving employees the right to disclose pay. Take action to address the pay gap in the Australian Public Service. Strengthen the ability of the Fair Work Commission to order pay increases for workers in low-paid female-dominated industries. These are just a few ideas for the Prime Minister.

If the Prime Minister was really listening—and if he has been listening, as he says he is—to women, then this is what he would have heard from women sharing their stories. Last week, I listened. I listened to women at the March 4 Justice in front of Parliament House. I thought it was important, as a man, to be there, to listen, to acknowledge and to better understand the injustices that women face every day in our society and in workplaces around Australia. I listened to ANU student association president, Madhumitha Janagaraja. She said: 'Disabled and First Nations women are proportionately much more likely to be survivors. This is not because they are inherently more vulnerable. It is because they are much more likely to be targeted because they are the groups with the least access to resources and often the ones with the least community support.' She ended with a powerful quote by Audre Lorde:

When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.

I heard women say that they have advocated for gender equality and for an end to gendered violence and abuse for decades. They have been working on this for decades. These are women who've been campaigning and fighting for this cause for decades, and they were all there, out in front of Parliament House and around Australia, in protests in all of our cities and in our towns. They've said very clearly that, in another decade's time, they don't want their daughters and their granddaughters to have to come out and march for the very same thing.

I've also listened to my colleagues who spoke out in parliament. The member for Cowan, my good friend Anne Aly, said:

I have somebody who regularly writes to me addressing his letters to the 'ISIS whore', sending me vile racist material directed at Labor female MPs. Enough is enough.

The member for Cooper, my next-door neighbour in electorate terms, Ged Kearney, spoke about her experience running for parliament in 2018. She said:

Placards with my face, in fact, corflutes of mine that were stolen for the very purpose, were defaced and painted over. Markings were drawn across my face making me look like a pig and a witch.

I also listen to my own staff. I'm going to name them: Laura, Anna, Lucy, Lauren and Katerine. They told me: 'It doesn't matter where it happens. It doesn't matter which party. Gendered harassment, assault, violence, bullying, coercion, discrimination is wrong, no matter what. It doesn't matter who it is or where it's coming from. If there are people found to be mistreating women in this way in our political party, in any party in this place, they have to go. There should be zero tolerance for this behaviour. We need to change this place and every workplace where gender discrimination exists.'

Everyone has been engaged in this subject in a way where we're reflecting, we're thinking and we're talking about it. Everyone's been saying that there's a toxic culture in Canberra and that the bad behaviour can be attributed to the culture of this place. What people rarely ask is: what actually is the culture of this place, what do they mean by that, and why is it so bad? It's a strange place, because 5,000-or-so people descend on this building for a couple of weeks. There are late working hours, long hours. There's a mix of power—clearly political power but also power imbalances—alcohol and a lack of accountability. In the very place where the laws of the land are made, are passed, there is an absence of legal mechanisms and HR structures to deal with harassment, bullying and assault. There's your recipe for a bad culture. When people in this place do the wrong thing, who deals with the problem? It's actually us, the MPs and senators. There are actually 227 offices, effectively little fiefdoms, here that deal with transgressions, assaults, harassment and bullying.

I and some of my colleagues have worked in the public service and in the private sector. I was surprised at the lack of an independent body to look at these HR issues and to have those legal mechanisms in place. I was surprised by it, because in my working experience and in my working life, whether it was at the Department of Defence, DFAT or SBS, there was an independent, arm's length body and mechanisms that dealt with these issues in that workplace. But here it's an absolute monarchy in every office. There's no independent arbiter. There's no arm's length process. There's no real HR department as such. Frankly, this structural deficit is an enabler of bad behaviour and bad culture as well. We've got to ask ourselves the questions: why are we different to other workplaces, why are we so special, why should we be so special, why should the rules be different for us, the rule makers? This is the place where laws are made, on this hill, in this chamber, this pinnacle of law making in our democracy. Yet there is an absence of adequate workplace laws in the very place we make those laws.

Changing culture is more than just talking about it. It's more than just words. We have to match that rhetoric with action, substantive action. As law makers, we need to change the structures and set the standards that people can abide by. We should have high standards. Our standards should be higher than any other workplace in Australia. We should at least match the basic minimum standards of other workplaces. We're not even doing that. It is because we don't have those standards and those structures that the bad behaviour and the bad culture that we have been reflecting on has permeated our workplace. It's become accepted. It's become the norm. I think it's probably true to say that every woman in this building deserves better than that, whether they be an MP, a staff member, one of the cleaners or one of the hospitality staff. They deserve better than a world where there's an absolute monarchy, where might is right, where power dominates and where there is no accountability of that power. That is basically what this place is like, in that context of workplace structures—or lack of them.

This goes beyond partisan issues; I think I share with all of us here in the chamber the view that this should go beyond partisanship and go beyond politics. The government needs to take this seriously. What I mean by that is that this is not a political attack. I mean it's got to go beyond words. It's important to listen. It's important to acknowledge and understand, but you have got to go beyond that and actually take substantive actions.

So, unlike the previous report that I alluded to, the Kate Jenkins report that will come out of her inquiry should not be left on the shelf to gather dust, like the other reports. The sex discrimination report has been shelved by the Attorney-General, since, effectively, over a year ago. The Prime Minister cannot let that happen. This is a moment in time when he needs to lead—in the true sense of the word—and take those actions. He made a start yesterday by acknowledging—listening and acknowledging; he talked about that—but there was no substance; there were no actions that came out of that.

It's not just about us here—the MPs, the staff and the Parliament House workers in this place. As important as this place is, it does set a standard. I'm not diminishing the importance of doing what we need to do here. But it's really about every woman and every workplace in Australia, and what we think needs to be the standard across our society. So our job here won't really be done until every woman is safe in every workplace, in every home, in every school; is equal in every place; and has the same opportunities as a man in everything that she wants to do. Our job won't be done until we can actually say that: that we've set that standard and we can say we are progressing towards that goal. I think it is achievable, if we work together.

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