Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

() (): On behalf of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, I present the committee's report entitled: Report 208 International Labour Organization Convention Concerning the Elimination of Violence and Harassment in the World of Work No. 190.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—I am glad to make a statement on the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties report entitled International Labour Organization Convention Concerning the Elimination of Violence and Harassment in the World of Work. Everyone has a right to participate in work free from violence and harassment, including, and especially ,gender based violence and harassment. In the last few years, Australia has faced a reckoning on how many people are denied that right. The milestone Respect@Work report exposed the full extent of the problem of sexual harassment in the Australian workplace, and I particularly acknowledge all those who have contributed their experiences to inform that work.

This reckoning has been motivated by the dismay and resolve of the Australian people and has rightly moved the Australian government to act and to begin taking the necessary steps to eliminate violence and harassment in the world of work. One of those necessary steps is ratifying the convention concerning the elimination of violence and harassment in work. This was in fact a recommendation of the Jenkins report. The convention is a landmark international instrument offering an inclusive, integrated and gender-responsive solution to the complex, multilayered and, all too frequently, gender based problem of violence and harassment in the world of work. The convention establishes a world-first definition of violence and harassment, which includes a range of unacceptable behaviours and practices or threats of such conduct, whether a single occurrence or repeated behaviour, that aims to or results in or is likely to cause physical, psychological, sexual or economic harm, and includes gender based violence and harassment.

What's more, the convention is comprehensive in its coverage of what we mean when we say 'the world of work', endeavouring to prevent violence and harassment in every possible configuration of a workplace. The convention recognises that a worker or other people in the world of work includes employees irrespective of their contractual status, persons in training, interns, apprentices, workers whose employment has been terminated, volunteers, jobseekers and job applicants. The convention covers all aspects of work, whether in private or public spaces, travelling to and from work, during rest breaks and during work related travel and training.

Upon adoption, the convention would mean that the government's businesses and worker representatives are required to work together in developing an inclusive, integrated and gender-responsive approach for the prevention of violence and harassment in the world of work. The new approach draws the individual elements of the convention together, providing an opportunity to supersede traditional approaches which involved a patchwork of workplace health and safety, workplace relations, human rights, criminal laws and policies.

In Australia, the Respect@Work report found that our patchwork of traditional laws and policies do contain inconsistencies in coverage and approach. The committee heard promising evidence that Australia tends to take advantage of the opportunity to address that, for example, a new body—the Respect at Work Council—has been established to consider how Australia's regulatory framework can be used to address workplace sexual harassment and violence.

While the committee found that Australia is in compliance with the obligations of the convention, the proper measure of success in eliminating violence and harassment in the world of work will not be measured in the passage of laws or the prosecution of offenders, as significant as that might be; the measure of success will be a community wide recognition that mutual respect and dignity are an essential and crucial requirement in the world of work, with a corresponding normative shift that actually reduces the instances of violence and harassment in the workplace. I take this opportunity to thank all of the members of the JSCOT committee, including the deputy chair and, of course, the secretariat.

The committee supports ratification of the convention. On behalf of the committee, I commend this report to the House.

Phillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I thank the House for the opportunity to make a brief statement on this report. I know all of us in this place agree that there is no place for violence or harassment of any kind in the workplace, and I know that's something all Australians would agree on. That's why it has been so important that the committee has given consideration to this convention and endorsed its ratification. The committee received evidence on the significant numbers of incidents of behaviour, all of which are unacceptable and are condemned in the strongest terms. That's why adopting this convention was one of the key actions of the former coalition government in response to the recommendations of the Jenkins report, which was commissioned by the then government, with all recommendations either accepted or noted before the last election.

The former government and now opposition supports the International Labour Organization's moves to counter violence and harassment in the workplace. In fact, then minister Senator Cash attended the International Labour Organization's conference in Geneva in June 2019, and the government had an active role in the development of the convention. It is good that we in this place have already made moves to comply with our obligations under this convention, including providing funding of more than $70 million for the implementation of the Respect@Work Roadmap for Respect over the 2020, 2021 and 2022 budgets; passing the Sex Discrimination and Fair Work (Respect at Work) Amendment Act 2021; establishing the Respect@Work Council, which is leading implementation of a number of key Respect@Work report recommendations; and substantially boosting legal assistance to provide for specialist lawyers with workplace and discrimination law expertise, with an additional $43.9 million in funding. As the report notes:

… Australia is already compliant with the Convention's obligations, but the evidence also indicated that violence and harassment in the world of work is still an extensive problem …

It also notes the committee's view:

… that the Convention should be ratified, but that ratification should not be viewed as an end in itself.

We must always be doing everything we can to eliminate violence and harassment in the workplace.

This report also covers consideration of amendments to the Rotterdam Convention relating to two chemicals. We support that action.

I thank the committee members; of course, the chair; the inquiry participants; and the secretariat, for their hard work on this report, and I commend it to the House.