Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

As colleagues here would be aware, I was only elected to this place last year. I don't have the depth of experience and connection that long-time members have. But I do bring the perspective of my community. Many Australians had not given much thought to the workplace experiences of parliamentarian staff before 2021, but what they have learned since Brittany Higgins brought her allegations to public attention is horrifying. The Set the standard report that followed transformed our understanding of what goes on in this place and the experiences of staff and others in this building. The report reveals a workplace where bullying, harassment, abuse and assault occur, and occur all too often and often without consequence. That report found that almost two-thirds of female parliamentarians and half of the LGBTIQ people working in parliament have experienced sexual harassment, more than the national average for women, which is 39 per cent, and significantly more than the one-quarter of men who have experienced it in parliament. Most disturbing of all is that this appalling workplace is our workplace, our national parliament. The behaviour documented by Commissioner Kate Jenkins would be unacceptable in any workplace in the country.

One of the findings that really resonated with me was the finding about the leadership deficit in parliament. In a building full of national and local leaders, there was a comprehensive failure of leadership when it came to creating and maintaining a workplace culture that was safe, respectful and inclusive. With an absence of leadership in this place has come a culture where standards are not established or enforced, where misconduct is tolerated and where serious wrongdoings occur. We are all familiar with the worst consequences of this, but it is worth reflecting on the more mundane consequences too. Good people see this culture and choose not to make a career in politics, as members or staff, and the Australian people lose respect and faith in our parliament.

Last night I had the privilege to speak to a group of women from across the country who sit outside politics but who sat in the gallery yesterday for question time. They were absolutely appalled, outraged by what they saw. They saw it as behaviour that would not be acceptable in any one of their workplaces but which is encouraged and condoned by the leadership in this place—a waste of time, with shouting, mockery, abuse. And this was, frankly, a pretty typical question time in this place. There is also, they felt, a complete lack of accountability, which is what question time is meant to about. It is meant to hold the government of the day accountable to the people of Australia, but, because of the standing orders, where answers can basically be avoided, they gained absolutely nothing productive from the 90 minutes that they sat watching. Frankly, that's often how I feel too. I often think about the kids who come down and watch us, who look to us as leaders in this place. They look at how we behave, and they wonder, would their teachers condone that? Frankly, they wouldn't. This is one of the cultures that we need to change in this place. We are naive to think that you can walk out of question time, where people are shouting and baying and calling each other names, and then walk back into your offices and create a respectful and respectable workplace. We are absolutely kidding ourselves. This is just one part of the culture in parliament that falls far short of what Australians expect, but it's also one of most visible parts of our culture. The disrespect, bullying and harassment outrages the community, and it devalues all of us. We cannot call ourselves leaders in this country until we fix the culture of how we interact and work together in this place, and specifically in this chamber.

Every Australian should be able to visit the parliament and be treated with dignity, with respect and in accordance with the law. Every Australian should be able to watch behaviour in question time and be reassured that their elected representatives treat their colleagues, and others who work here, with respect and that we focus on the most important issues that the country faces, not political pointscoring. Set the standard has shone a light on the very worst behaviour in this place. We owe a great deal of debt to Kate Jenkins and the individuals who came forward to reveal their own painful experiences in the hope that documenting the past could improve the future.

I welcome the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service Bill 2023, because what it achieves—the creation of the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service, the implementation of the Set the standard recommendations and the behavioural codes—are all steps towards ensuring that improved standards will persist, whether we have a minority government, a pandemic, a war or whatever else confronts the parliament. It takes us further on the journey towards an independent parliamentary standards commission which would permanently embed behaviour standards in parliament.

We clearly have a long way to go before every person in this place is treated the way they ought to be treated. We are starting on the right path, but I fundamentally believe that, if we do not fix question time, if we do not fix how we behave towards each other and if the leaders, particularly of the major parties, do not also change their own behaviour, then we will not change the culture here.

Coming in as a crossbencher, I had no expectation that this was how it would be. But I imagine how different that is as a new MP from one of the major parties, because you see your leaders at the front shouting, baying and, I think, frankly, bullying and mocking—all the things I don't want my kids to do—every single day, and obviously we all follow our leaders. I think that is the benefit of the crossbench—having a different perspective. I have the perspective of my community and the seven or eight workplaces I've ever worked in. If I had behaved like this in any of my workplaces, I would have been out of on my ear and I would have deserved it.

We need to make changes in this House, but I support where the government is going in supporting this bill.

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