Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Sex Discrimination Amendment (Prohibiting All Sexual Harassment) Bill 2021 is critically important. So many women and men around Australia are saying enough is enough today and are marching for justice.

It is baffling that these amendments have not already been implemented and even more so that the government did not take up my invitation some weeks ago to present it themselves.

Kate Jenkins, the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, summed it up nicely in her foreword to the Respect@Work report tabled last year:

Sexual harassment is not a women's issue: it is a societal issue, which every Australian, and every Australian workplace, can contribute to addressing.

Workplace sexual harassment is not inevitable. It is not acceptable. It is preventable.

Sexual harassment is not illegal in all circumstances. Many are not adequately protected, nor personally liable, for sexual harassment, in particular MPs—members of parliament in this place—and judges.

In 2008, the Australian Human Rights Commission submitted that the act should be clarified so statutory appointees, judges and members of parliament were adequately protected, as well as personally liable.

The Prime Minister, following the inquiry into the former High Court Justice Heydon, called those allegations 'very disturbing and very concerning'.

Shockingly, much of what Dyson Heydon did was not 'illegal' under the current legislation due to the nature of the employment arrangement between judges and their associates.

This year, we have heard of allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault of very grave nature 'occurring' in this place.

While some of those instances were assaults and are therefore covered under criminal law, it is important to recognise the enabling conditions that can contribute to assault.

Sexual harassment must be prohibited in all circumstances.

We need to talk about it and we need laws that support victims.

The legislation as it stands is not good enough to protect all in their workplaces, and we need this amendment.

Respect@Work

The Respect@Work report delivered by the Australian Human Rights Commission to the government in March 2020, a year ago, had 55 recommendations. Three have been partially implemented.

The foreword to that report states that Australia was once a leader in prohibiting sexual harassment. It further states:

However, over 35 years on, the rate of change has been disappointingly slow. Australia now lags behind other countries in preventing and responding to sexual harassment.

The Australian Human Rights Commission survey in 2018 found that one in three people experienced sexual harassment at work in the last five years. Those statistics should be shocking.

The Human Rights Commission also found that 'the current legal and regulatory system is simply no longer fit for purpose'.

The amendments presented today go some way to addressing the gaps in advance of broader reform.

Based on data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, in the last 12 months:

This has a dramatic impact on the health and wellbeing of the Australian population and even translates into an economic impact. To give the coalition a fact that speaks to its focus:

We need legislative reform to urgently address this issue.

Parliament

The allegations we have heard this year from Ms Higgins and others of their harassment and even assault here in Parliament House reinforce the need for a change to the legislation.

Grace Tame, the Australian of the Year, has told us that the most powerful thing we can do for victims is to talk about the incidence of harassment, grooming and assault.

It is empowering and it encourages others to come forward to tell their story.

It helps to prevent further incidents of abuse.

And it reduces the stigma on victims, shifting the shame to the perpetrators where it rightly belongs.

Conclusion

Creating legislation to make sure that MPs and judges are held to the same standard as others in their workplaces is important.

To the members in this place, it is our job.

To the government, adopt this bill and demonstrate a commitment to integrity and reform.

The standard you walk past is the standard you accept. If you fail to adopt this amendment, you are endorsing sexual harassment in our workplace. You are saying MPs should not be held to the same standard as others.

This amendment has been recommended in various forms by the Law Council, the Human Rights Commission and the Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs since 2008.

The people of Australia are tired of words, they want action.

It has been on the to-do list for too long.

It's time to make this change now.

In the spirit of the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, we need to tackle inequality in the law with one piece of legislation at a time.

What better place to start than the Sex Discrimination Act.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion. It is a pleasure to second this vital and overdue bill from the member for Warringah, and I commend the member's leadership and initiative. It's this kind of initiative that, regrettably, we haven't seen from the government to amend this bill themselves. As the member for Warringah pointed out, a mere three of the 55 recommendations from the Respect@Work report that Sex Discrimination Commissioner Dr Kate Jenkins handed to the Attorney-General over a year ago have been implemented. Three out of 55 is quite simply appalling.

I'm certain Australians will not tolerate similar treatment of any recommendations that come out of Dr Jenkins's next review of workplace culture here in Parliament House. This bill corrects a glaring gap in the Sex Discrimination Act. The act specifies the circumstances in which sexual harassment is prohibited. Unfortunately, it's drafted in a way that excludes statutory appointees like MPs and judges from being protected from or liable for sexual harassment. For over a decade, inquiries and reviews have pointed this out and called on successive governments to amend the act to expressly include MPs and judges. A decade of no action is also quite simply appalling.

Since I arrived in this place, it has, sadly, become clear to me that the government has essentially no interest in advancing integrity policy and reform in this country. For example, last October I introduced the Commonwealth Parliamentary Standards Bill to this House. That bill would establish a code of conduct for all MPs and their staff that prohibits the mistreatment and harassment of any person in this workplace, including sexual harassment. That bill would also establish an independent parliamentary standards commissioner, who would confidentially handle complaints from MPs and their staff who've been mistreated, and would put the needs of victims first. I asked the Attorney-General on numerous occasions last year to allow me to debate that bill, but I was refused.

This afternoon, tens of thousands of Australians will march in the streets to tell the government that they're fed up with inaction on important issues like this. Just imagine if the government had actually tried to progress the work a year ago when the Respect@Work report was handed over to the Attorney-General. Just imagine the position we'd be in to respond to the horrific allegations that have surfaced over the past months if the government had been courageous enough to debate the Commonwealth Parliamentary Standards Bill. Just imagine if this bill brought today by the member for Warringah was debated and enacted.

How long will it take for the government to realise that bills like these are not political show ponies or dog whistles, that bills like these are real, urgent, evidence based reform that would make our workplace safer; that bills like these would start to restore the respect and trust that Australians have lost in this government and this institution? I commend this bill to the House and I call on the government to debate this and other integrity bills that are before the House without delay.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for the debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.