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

I rise to speak in response to the joint statement of acknowledgement given by you, President, and to apologise to everyone who has been harmed, abused, raped, harassed, bullied and made unsafe in this workplace and to reinforce the Greens' full commitment to working for the implementation of every single one of the Set the standard recommendations.

Around half the staff in parliamentary workplaces have experienced harassment, bullying or assault during their time here—almost half. We should all be appalled by that. For First Nations people, people of colour, people with disability, the harassment and disrespect are even worse. The commission heard that even raising issues of racism or the intersectionality of racism and sexism could provoke an aggressive response. My own Greens colleagues have experienced that, as have our staff. Sexism and racism are alive and well in this parliament, and in combination they are even more damaging and dangerous. This has not been a safe workplace; this has been an entitled boys' club. As the thousands of women and allies who took to the streets to march for justice said: 'Enough. This has to stop.' There cannot be more blame-shifting, glossing over and waiting until later; the blame is ours, the shame is ours. On behalf of the Greens, we are, I am, so sorry.

There are many things on which people in this place do not agree, but on this issue we must be better and we must act collectively. The toxic culture that has been allowed to fester in parliament, documented in appalling detail by Commissioner Jenkins in the Set the standard report must end and that will only happen if we all work together to end it. As one of the participants interviewed by the Human Rights Commission said:

This is Parliament. It should set the standard for workplace culture, not the floor of what culture should be.

We are sorry and we have to do better, every single one of us, every single day.

It has been nearly 12 months since Brittany Higgins bravely shared her experience, peeling back the curtains on the callous disregard that so many women and people have endured for so long. Hers was not the first story. Rachelle Miller, Chelsea Potter and countless others have spoken out before. Brittany Higgins' story was not even the most recent story but hers was the final straw, and this parliament must commit to making it the last story like that that someone has to tell.

Brittany Higgins, Rachelle Miller, Chelsea Potter, Josie Coles, Emma Husar, Julia Banks and so many others who shared their stories with Commissioner Kate Jenkins did so because they felt they had to in order to reveal the toxic culture, the sexism, the bullying, the lack of support, the he-said, she-said mentality and the cover-ups. They did this in the hope that something would change. They chose to speak up for themselves but also for those who weren't able to speak up. We know from the report that the vast majority of staff who have been harassed in this place have made no formal report because they had no faith that anything would be done.

We have heard and we have listened, but we must keep listening. The Prime Minister must listen in particular to Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins tomorrow at the Press Club. We must make sure that current and former staff—affected survivors—are involved in these reforms in a meaningful way and feel supported to tell us when we're not doing enough. We must work to support those who have suffered and those who are still suffering from their experience. We must maintain a robust, independent, confidential complaints process that people can trust. We must work to put in place a code of conduct that not only sets the standard but makes sure there are consequences when those standards are not met. We need to tackle inequality, racism, classism, homophobia and lack of representation in our parliament. The culture in this place will only change when decisions are being made by people with differing views and experiences. We must work for a more diverse and inclusive parliament that better represents our community with more women, more people of colour, more people with disability, more LGBTIQ+ people and people with diverse backgrounds.

I want to thank Commissioner Jenkins and her team again for the incredible work that they have done in setting out what we need to do. We owe it to everyone who took part, to everyone in this place and to everyone in the country to show some leadership and get it done. I also want to acknowledge that this work needs to be done not just in this workplace but in all workplaces around the country. We must keep working to implement a positive duty on employers to ensure that every worker in every workplace is safe and respected.