Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move amendments (1) and (2) on sheet 1432, together:

(1) Schedule 1, item 60, page 14 (after line 25), after subsection 28AA(1), insert:

(1A) For the purposes of this Act, a person also harasses another person (the person harassed) on the ground of sex if:

(a) the person engages in unwanted conduct related to sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status, marital or relationship status, pregnancy or potential pregnancy, breastfeeding or family responsibilities; and

(b) the person does so in circumstances in which a reasonable person, having regard to all the circumstances, would have anticipated the possibility that the conduct would:

(i) violate the dignity of the person harassed; or

(ii) create or facilitate an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for the person harassed.

(2) Schedule 1, page 14 (line 26), omit "subsection (1)", substitute "subsections (1) and (1A)".

The Respect@Work inquiry heard that the existence of a sexually-permeated, hostile environment was not routinely recognised by individuals or by their organisations as sexual harassment. The Human Rights Commission was of the view that this amendment would provide clarity and certainty in the law, which, as we are frequently reminded by the Law Council, is in fact essential for the administration of justice. It would assist in setting clear boundaries in the workplace for what is and is not acceptable conduct. On that basis, again, Commissioner Jenkins recommended this change that we are now proposing, as recommendation 16c.

Again and again and again, senators are rising in this chamber to urge the implementation of the recommendations of the Respect@Work report. At the risk of tedious repetition, I'll make this point again: the government said all of the 55 recommendations are supported, and yet so few of them appear in the legislation before us. On Monday, when Prime Minister Morrison stands up at the National Summit on Women's Safety and makes his big speech about how terrific it is that this legislation has made it through the parliament, I hope that he fronts up and is honest with Australian women. I hope he tells them that there are just a handful of the 55 recommendations that have actually been implemented as part of this legislation, and that, in fact, so many of the recommendations that they purport to accept are merely noted and then pushed to one side or kicked into the long grass for some interminable process for which there is no end point and no prospect of a meaningful conclusion. All we can conclude, witnessing the behaviour of the government in this chamber, is that they are not in any way interested in providing a meaningful legislative response to the issues that were identified by Commissioner Jenkins and which are so clearly laid out in this report.

It's clear that the change that I am now proposing in the final amendments to be moved by Labor does not have the support of the majority of the Senate at this time. Nonetheless, we are moving these amendment to ensure that this important recommendation of the Sex Discrimination Commissioner's landmark report is not ignored in this debate. Unfortunately, it has been ignored by the Morrison government. The Morrison government said that it agreed with recommendation 16(c) of the Respect@Work report in principle, but it has ignored it in practice.