Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Finance (Senator Birmingham) to a question without notice asked by Senator Waters today relating to allegations concerning ministerial staff.

I asked about this issue yesterday and I asked whether or not the government would support the Sex Discrimination Commissioner doing a culture review of what on earth is going on in this building, where we have incident after incident. I didn't get a reply to that aspect of the question yesterday. This morning we saw the Prime Minister finally respond, but his response was really the bare minimum. What he's now proposed is two reviews, but they're both internal. There is one internal review that will be led by his own staff member in his department that will look at the mishandling—frankly—of Ms Higgins's rape allegations and the fact that she felt silenced, unsupported and let down and has ultimately moved on from politics. The second review will be led by a Liberal MP into the culture of this building. When you have the fact that there is a silencing affect and a previous history of party being put before personal safety, it is not enough—it is not adequate—to have internal reviews to deal with this issue. I can tell you now: internal reviews do not give women confidence that these issues will actually be tackled and that anything will change. So that's our first message to the Prime Minister: do an independent, external review. It can be the Sex Discrimination Commissioner; they've got a great track record of looking at these issues in other workplaces. Sadly, we know that Parliament House is not unusual in having sexual harassment and assault incidents that are, sadly, rife for many, many workers.

The other point that I asked and didn't get a response to is: how do we know if these internal reviews, and the findings of same, will even be made public? There's a long history of the PM charging his own people with looking into some scandal or another, usually involving one of his ministers—usually a male minister, I might add—and often the results of that review are simply not made public. There is no transparency in that process. Naturally, the conduct doesn't tend to change. So I asked about whether or not the review findings will be made public and, again, sadly, I did not get an answer. We also don't know what time frame will be applied for those reviews. The Prime Minister didn't answer that request in his press conference earlier today—I would hazard a guess that it's not till after the election. We don't know whether or not these internal reviews will interact with existing reviews that are on foot being led by the CPSU, the union that covers this building and the workers and staff in this building. That review is already underway and they have been trying to get members of the government to engage. My understanding is they have had no success in so doing, which, frankly, is unsurprising but is unacceptable. It's not clear whether or not staff themselves here in this building, or the women's safety sector, or any other relevant experts, will be consulted in the course of those internal reviews. Again, internal reviews are not good enough. They will not restore confidence. The Prime Minister needs to do better. Perhaps he could ask his wife for some advice in that regard.

On that point, the press conference earlier this morning by the Prime Minister, which I asked Minister Birmingham about, really had some very dated undertones to it. We know the Prime Minister spent some money receiving some training from an empathy consultant. My suggestion is that the Prime Minister now seek some training about modern attitudes to gender, because, frankly, there was victim-blaming that occurred in his press conference today. He may not have intended it—it may well have been unconscious—but nonetheless it was there. His statement that Brittany Higgins 'found herself' in a vulnerable situation completely denied the fact that she had been put in such a situation by a badly behaved man who happened to be employed by his own party. That victim-blaming is, sadly, so widespread and often unconscious that training clearly is required.

The other point was that the Prime Minister was asked to reflect on: what if it had been his daughters? Well, it's not the 1950s anymore, Prime Minister. Women have value irrespective of whether we are daughters or wives or in any other way related to men. We have value in and of ourselves. So I was disheartened to hear that very outdated notion expressed by the so-called leader of our nation. Ms Higgins has called for an independent body for staff to take complaints to. The Prime Minister said today he would listen to her. I asked him to listen to that call. We'll see what happens in that regard.

Question agreed to.