Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to talk about the Jenkins report, which was released yesterday. We all need to be shocked about what it said. It was truly a shocking revelation about this place as a workplace, leading out to our electorate offices.

More than a third of people who responded who are current employees talked about being sexually harassed—more than a third! Every single senator and MP in this place should be standing up today and demanding action. More than a third of staff currently employed talked about being bullied by their employers. And the shocking statistics are that the repeated offences are massive. We note that 82 per cent of people who talked about being bullied said that other people were bullied, and that 66 per cent of people who said they had been sexually harassed talked about other people also being sexually harassed.

This place is about power and privilege. It's an aggressive workplace; there are way too many men here and the redress needs to come from more women MPs and senators, more women as staffers and all of us taking responsibility to call this out. I can't say, 'Hey, it's not me,' because that's not what the public sees. The public sees all of us as being tarred with the same brush here. We're all being held responsible to make this parliament a better place. I, for one, made a pact with myself about six months ago that I would call it out, because I've been abused at work. I know what it feels like to be voiceless and powerless. The fact that we're currently doing that to staff in this place is an absolute disgrace. It has to stop.