Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make some remarks about the Sex Discrimination and Fair Work (Respect at Work) Amendment Bill 2021. These are serious issues because we want every Australian to have an equal chance at success in life. The data, regrettably, shows that there are many Australian women who are being harassed at work, and that is doing great damage not only to them but also to our country.

This is about work. Work is about a whole lot of things: it's about personal meaning and it's about economic participation. If we don't get these things right then the whole country is much diminished. We do have a problem with female workforce participation. We should be in a stronger position than we are. I think these are issues which have dogged workplaces for too long. The Human Rights Commission data from 2018 shows that two in five women are harassed at work, which is an extraordinarily high number when you think about Australia being a modern, advanced liberal democracy.

The commissioner who performed this work, Kate Jenkins, has said, appropriately:

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

I think that's a good segue to a few remarks on these matters. My friend Kelly O'Dwyer commissioned this report some years ago when she was the Minister for Women. The former minister asked that there be a review into these matters, looking at reporting, risk factors, the legal framework, the existing measures that are used to deal with harassment and the impact on individuals who are harassed. The executive government, through the Attorney-General, has now decided to advance this report, which is important.

This bill puts a few planks down. The first is setting out that harassment is harassment, with a view to eliminating harassment in all workplaces. We in this place regulate the private economy with the slew of workplace laws we have. I often say we have too many, but in this case we clearly need more, as well as better enforcement. So this bill establishes that harassment is a legal and valid reason for dismissal. It gives more opportunities for the commission to put in place punitive measures like stop orders.

Critically, it expands the mandate of the regime to public officials, including members of parliament, public servants, staff of members of parliament, and judges. I have to say I can't understand why all those people weren't already included in these arrangements. I think there is a very important principle at stake here, and that is that everyone's job is important and no-one should be in any different a position to anyone else when it comes to harassment. It doesn't matter who you work for or who you are; you cannot harass people at work. So I think including these additional people is a no-brainer.

Of course, the broad thrust of this is to ensure that there are better tools and more punitive measures to stop harassment. Unless we are able to get on top of this, Australia as an advanced nation will stagnate on the question of female workforce participation. There are more men than women in the workplace, and I don't think that's a good thing. We want people to have an equal shot at economic participation. That is critical for our nation. As to these issues that have been dealt with in the report, I'm very pleased that our government is taking the lead on this. This is not the only part of the reform, but this is a big chunk of the report's recommendations.

Finally, I note that there are some particular issues that the LGBTQI community, including the trans community, would like to see addressed in some form. It may be appropriate to address that here, or it may be appropriate to address it elsewhere, but I think the principle is sound: we want every Australian to have an equal crack at work and be safe at work to provide that economic participation. It shouldn't matter who you are. If there are minority groups that feel that they are in need of additional protections, I think that those should be seriously considered, because it is very important that countries like Australia go out of their way to protect minorities. Minorities are not there to be bashed up; minorities are there to be protected. I thank the Senate.