Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to thank Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins and her staff at the Human Rights Commission for Set the standard, the report she released yesterday into the parliamentary workplace and making sure that everyone who works here is safe at work. I want to thank the Sex Discrimination Commissioner and all of the staff who worked on the report, and I particularly want to thank the more than 1,700 people and organisations who contributed to the report. Of course, Brittany Higgins was very important in establishing the reasons for this report. I want to acknowledge her bravery and her courage in coming forward, but also those 1,700 current and former members of parliament, staff and organisations like the Elizabeth Reid Network.

We now have 28 very important recommendations before us in this parliament. I believe we need to take these recommendations seriously. We need to talk to our staff and make sure that we are able to implement the recommendations that will make this a safer workplace for everyone in it. And we need to go further than that. Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins has released another report into other workplaces. Of course we want parliamentarians and their staff to be safe, but we also want bus drivers, factory workers, people working in retail or hospitality, naval officers and young doctors to be safe. Everyone should be safe in their workplace.

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