Ged Kearney (Cooper, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Bendigo, the member for Lalor and I have today written to the Prime Minister to request that he removes the member for Bowman as the Chair of the Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training. We are the Labor members on this committee. We are all women. It is our view—and we believe the view of many—that the member for Bowman's continuing role as chair is untenable.

Every day he continues in this role, a standard is set that terrible behaviour, including threatening online behaviour towards women, has no consequences. Maintaining the appointment as chair of a parliamentary standing committee is a privilege. It requires the highest standards, and we feel he falls short of those standards. Therefore he diminishes the committee, the House and the parliament each day he remains in that office.

We do not feel comfortable travelling with the member for Bowman on committee business. We fear expert witnesses will be reluctant to appear before the committee while the member for Bowman remains in that role. The Labor Party has asked the House to take action to have the member for Bowman removed as chair, but this action has not been supported by those opposite. The House standing orders empower the Prime Minister to appoint the chair of each standing committee. We often remark in the building that the behaviour you walk past is the behaviour you accept. We are asking the PM to stop walking past shocking behaviour and do something about it.

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