Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to make a very brief contribution. I think these are particularly important amendments. I see Senator Cash nodding her head. I hope that indicates a change of heart and support for a positive duty. For people who don't understand the parliamentary process, the language we speak in here is sometimes entirely inaccessible, but for me this is the prevention clause, the prevention action, to make sure that what we know is happening in workplaces around this country is actually prevented by changing the cultural practices and the fulsome discussion that could happen if these amendments pass today. Again I urge the crossbenchers to sit with us and support these amendments, because, in the absence of support for this positive duty for the enactment of a prevention incentive for workplaces, we're going to continue to hear reports.

Today I rise to acknowledge previous evidence that I've put on the record here in the parliament. I'm particularly speaking for a young woman, pseudonymously known as AMP Annie, who documented for me—and I read her statement to this place—the sort of harassment that she suffered, needing to change her entire career, and the terrible mental health journey that she is on to this day, more than a decade after her harassment. She's like so many who gave evidence to the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Commissioner Jenkins. It's reported on page 263 of the 900-page report, which is entirely accessible to the government and to the Attorney-General:

The misconduct was reported to senior management who did nothing … Reporting it to [a work health and safety regulator and an anti-discrimination agency] actually made it worse, causing more stress to me, culminating in my being forced out of my job under horrendous circumstances ... The outcome of all of this for me was catastrophic. I lost my job and my income and everything I had ever studied and worked for; my family was greatly affected; and my life has never recovered.

That could be prevented if this amendment goes through the parliament today. That is exactly the sort of thing we should be preventing. I wholly endorse the remarks of Senator McAllister and also Senator Waters.