Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

RUQI () (): As a member of the Joint Select Committee on Parliamentary Standards, I rise to speak to the final report of the committee which was tasked with the job of developing codes of conduct for parliamentary precincts, parliamentarians and staff. Between these three codes, all parliamentarians, staff and people who work and visit Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces are covered.

The recommendation to develop codes of conduct came out of the review of parliamentary workplaces undertaken by Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins. Set the standard was the report which revealed the toxic culture of our workplace, where so many did not feel safe. It was one year ago that this report was released. I pay tribute to and acknowledge the people who work in this place, current and former, for their exceptional courage in speaking up about the broken culture in here, which has allowed bullying, harassment, sexual assault, racism and discrimination to go on in our workplace. The highest office in this country should have been leading the way on safe and respectful workplaces. Instead, people have been harmed and heard here.

I particularly want to thank the many staff, especially those from marginalised and targeted communities, who spoke frankly and bravely about their experiences and what needs to change in here. That can't have been easy. But their bravery is now paving the way for much-needed change. This report, with its accompanying behaviour codes, is the culmination of a great deal of hard work, time and effort not just by those on the committee and the committee's secretariat, who of course do some incredible work, but by so many others through the years who have highlighted the toxic culture of this workplace and provided feedback on how this can and should be changed. The behaviour codes represent a big part of what was missing in order to set a high standard of respect and safety, clearly naming behaviour which is unacceptable and which will not be tolerated in here under any circumstances.

The Jenkins report was a devastating indictment of the culture in this place and revealed just how unsafe parliamentary workplaces have been for so long. A staggering 51 per cent of people working in parliamentary workplaces have experienced at least one incident of bullying, sexual harassment or actual or attempted sexual assault. One in three parliamentary staffers who participated in the review said they had been sexually harassed. A quarter of those who said they were sexually harassed by a single harasser said that the perpetrator was a parliamentarian. Nearly two-thirds of female politicians reported having been sexually harassed. The Set the standard report referenced multiple examples of discrimination experienced by First Nations people, people of colour, people with disability and LGBTQI+ people. These experiences included daily exclusion and microaggressions, bullying, role segregation and a lack of psychological safety. Participants shared that identifying as different from the norm in these workplaces is inherently unsafe.

The report also found that the underrepresentation in Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces of First Nations people, people of colour, LGBTQI+ people and people with disability as parliamentarians and in other roles across the workplace is linked to systemic inequality and lack of power and creates a conducive environment for bullying, sexual harassment and sexual assault. I must say that, as a member of one of these groups with a lived experience of intersecting sexism and racism and as someone who has had a lifelong mission of eliminating discrimination not only based on gender but also against marginalised minority groups, developing behaviour standards and codes that explicitly addressed this was quite personal. The work of the last few months has been some of the hardest and most emotional as well as rewarding for me. And I will admit that it does take its toll.

I know that there are many like me in our community whose workplaces have been fundamentally unsafe for them. We heard from witness after witness about the need to name and the power of naming unacceptable behaviour over and above basic references to bullying and harassment. Professor Tim Soutphommasane noted that there was particular power in naming things in instruments like codes of conduct and that any code, if it is going to be fit for purpose in a contemporary workplace or institution, should pay attention to the different forms of harassment, bullying and discrimination. Professor Tim Soutphommasane also stated that having a robust code of conduct that pays serious attention to diversity, equality and inclusion may help in ensuring that the parliament over time will be more representative and reflective of the Australian society that it serves.

Democracy in Colour agreed that it was incredibly important that other forms of discrimination be listed explicitly alongside gender based discrimination within the code. Fair Agenda stated:

… intersectionality is really core to having a proper and robust code that would reflect the expectations of the public.

The Human Rights Law Centre spoke of the importance of parliament setting a higher standard of behaviour for the whole country, not just with respect to gender based violence but with regard to other forms of discrimination and abuse, including racism, ableism, homophobia and transphobia. The Australian Muslim Advocacy Network raised similar issues, noting how racist political speech impacted not only the parliamentary workplace and the accessibility of a parliamentary career to diverse candidates but public discourse and the rise of hate crime and violent ideological extremism.

I am really glad that, in response to these findings, the report has acknowledged the intersections of discrimination that further marginalise First Nations people, people of colour, disabled people and LGBTQI+ communities, and each of the three codes explicitly prohibit discrimination on these grounds. The report also recommends that parliamentarians should have mandatory training in safe and respectful workplaces, people management and inclusive leadership, including antiracism, disability discrimination and First Nations cultural awareness training. This training will be crucial in creating a culture that respects and values diverse people, as well as challenging entrenched power and privilege.

The effectiveness of the codes will be very much determined by the enforcement structures that support them. Those who breach the codes must be held accountable with proportionate sanctions. This is absolutely necessary to drive behavioural change, to encourage complainants to come forward and to instil greater public confidence in the codes. The advisory and enforcement regime to support the codes has yet to be established, but I strongly recommend the sanctions as recommended by the Jenkins report. These codes, unanimously agreed by the committee, show that we are serious about stopping misconduct and unacceptable behaviour, and they will make it easier for people to report such behaviour. I urge the parliament to swiftly endorse these behaviour codes and to then adopt them as soon as the investigative and enforcement mechanisms have been established.

I also urge the government to commence work on developing codes of conduct which address issues of integrity and democracy. While this work fell outside our committee's remit of preparing codes to make this a safer and more respectful place for those who work and visit here, it is clear that parliament needs stronger standards when it comes to integrity and ethics. I sincerely hope these behaviour codes also help in our parliament becoming more representative of the community that we serve. Parliament is one of the most protected, secure buildings in this country, and yet so many people have not been safe here: women, First Nations people, people of colour, people with disability and LGBTQI+ people. Higher behaviour standards will make parliament safer and more welcoming to these cohorts. We should be leaders in creating a decent workplace, one where everyone feels safe, respected and valued. These behaviour codes take us one step closer to becoming such a workplace.