Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I believe very firmly that there are some basic yardsticks by which any civilised society should measure itself. One of those is that everyone has the right to a safe and respectful workplace. And yet, here we are, nearly a quarter of the way through the 21st century and still working towards this goal. The fact that workplaces have not been safe or respectful for so many Australians is simply unacceptable, as is the fact that the previous government dismissed this goal as 'impractical' and not worth striving for—that what we had was somehow good enough. It was not, and it is not. That is what this legislation seeks to address.

That's why Labor campaigned on a promise to implement in full every single one of the recommendations in the Respect@Work report into sexual harassment in Australian workplaces. And that is why, shortly after I had the honour of being sworn in as Prime Minister, I reiterated that this election promise was now a key part of the agenda of the new government. We owe a great debt of gratitude to everyone who stepped up to share their experiences with Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins, especially the survivors who did so at great emotional cost. It certainly can't have been easy to relive some of those moments and put difficult memories into words. But, because of their courage, we now have a map towards a better future. We promise to follow that map.

The Australian people can be confident that they now have a government that sticks to our plans. The Australian people put their faith in us, and we'll deliver on the commitments that we gave, including this legislation. Since the election less than six months ago, we have not wasted a day. We have fulfilled our promise to establish family and domestic violence leave, because no woman should have to choose between her job and her safety. We are acting on our commitments to build more affordable housing for women and children fleeing violence, including the $100 million that we allocated in the budget for emergency housing. We know that tonight, like every night, tragically in Australia a woman, sometimes a woman with her children, will be turned away from emergency shelters because there simply isn't anywhere for them to go. We know that they're likely to spend the night in a park or in a car or on a friend's couch. We can do so much better in 2022, and we're obligated to do so. We're acting on the commitment that we made—and it's funded in the budget—for an additional 500 frontline workers to support women as they make these courageous and often difficult transitions. We're acting on our commitment to introduce cheaper child care and early education, and we're fulfilling another commitment with the introduction of this legislation.

In short, this bill will strengthen laws to help prevent sexual harassment. Why do we need to do it? Well, it should be obvious that everyone does have a right to a safe and a respectful workplace. The government is acting to help put an end to sexual harassment in Australian workplaces. Let's take a look at some uncomfortable facts. Over the past five years, one in three people experienced sexual harassment at work, with women experiencing higher rates of harassment than men. Time and time again it is women who bear the brunt. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people with a disability and members of the LGBTQ + community are also, on average, more likely to experience workplace sexual harassment. No-one should have to suffer stress or anxiety because they feel uncomfortable or unsafe at work. No-one should have to leave their job and lose their income or disrupt their career because they're being harassed. Along with all the human costs in terms of physical and mental health, there is also an economic cost of sexual harassment. This has been estimated to be close to $4 billion ever year.

The former government sat on the Jenkins report for almost a year without responding to the recommendations, and then, of course, they refused to implement many of the key recommendations. In parliament in 2021 the then government and now those opposite voted against Labor's amendments to introduce a positive duty on employers to eliminate sexual harassment. Dwell on that for a moment: a positive duty to eliminate sexual harassment. It was a step too far for some. In spite of the very clear recommendations of the Jenkins report, they voted against it. They voted against prohibiting sexual harassment under our workplace laws, voted against protecting victims amassing massive legal bills when they tried to seek justice, voted against making substantive equality between women and men the objective of the Sex Discrimination Act and voted against allowing unions and other organisations to bring legal action on behalf of victims.

Nothing exemplified the former government's failures as clearly as its response to the Women's March4Justice. Many people from across the chamber, and certainly many of my colleagues, walked the very short distance out to the front of Parliament House on that day. What we saw was women of different generations responding—not just here, of course, but around the country—and saying, as the banner showed, 'Enough is enough!' and that it was actually time for people to be heard. And that day we heard a truth that we all needed to hear. Afterwards, in the chamber here, we had a bit of a debate. I'll never forget it. The then Prime Minister suggested that we give ourselves a pat on the back as a nation because the protest was not met with bullets! It was quite an extraordinary moment. As I said at the time, the government had not so much a tin ear as a wall of concrete.

It's no wonder, given that that was the attitude, that Australia during the term of the former government fell to 70th in the world for women's economic participation and opportunity. When government changed in 2013 we went from being the 24th most equal country in the world—for equality between women and men—to the 50th. We know that, across the country, too many working women are underappreciated, underpaid and disrespected. This is an issue for over half of the country, for women, but it is also an issue for the nation as a whole because we're all held back as a nation when we don't value and create the opportunity for all of us, men and women, to participate fully in our economy and in our society.

On 21 May, Australians voted to change this. They voted to support all of the key recommendations of the Respect@Work report, and we're continuing to work across government, with business and others, to ensure that all of these recommendations are implemented. This bill will implement key legislative changes recommended by Commissioner Jenkins that were left unfinished by the former government. It will place a positive duty on employers to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate sex discrimination, sexual harassment and victimisation as far as possible. It will give the Australian Human Rights Commission new powers to enforce that positive duty, to help make sure employers are meeting their obligations. It will expressly prohibit conduct that results in a hostile workplace environment on the basis of gender. It will ensure Commonwealth public sector organisations are also required to report to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency on its gender equality indicators.

In addition, the government has introduced amendments to the Fair Work Act in the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill 2022 to prohibit sexual harassment under our workplace relations laws, making it clear that sexual harassment is a serious workplace issue. The amendments to the Fair Work Act also include an additional pathway for affected workers to obtain quick and effective assistance from the Fair Work Commission. Those changes, along with the bill before us today, are a key part of our mission to progress gender equality across all our work as a government. Its passage will move Australia forward in our efforts to prevent workplace sexual harassment from happening in the first place.

Our budget last month, with its investment in child care and paid parental leave, represented Australia's biggest ever investment in women's economic equality. With this bill, we recognise that achieving women's economic equality includes making sure that women are safe at work. We must never accept that sexual harassment is somehow either inevitable or unavoidable. It is anything but. Nor should we be tempted by the dangerous fiction that somehow we are not capable of improvement. We are. Let's make these changes and move forward with our national story.

I said during the campaign, consistently, that we do live in the greatest nation on earth, and I certainly believe that. But an even greater nation is within our reach. The greater nation is one that values our people across the spectrum, men and women, and that provides opportunity that supports equality. Thanks to the courage of every victim-survivor who has stepped forward, we have no reason not to provide support to them and to acknowledge their courage by supporting this legislation. These people have shown the way. It is something that we should all embrace as part of the determination that we share to shape Australia into the very best version that we can be, a nation that reflects our highest ideals. I know that together we can build a better future, one with equality and respect at its core. I commend the bill to the House.

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