Docked pay, red cards for badly behaved politicians

Politicians could have up to $11,000 docked from their pay or be suspended from parliament for bad behaviour if a revolutionary new workplace code is passed into law.

The historic reforms will be introduced by Labor on Wednesday to create a body with the power to investigate allegations of breaches of parliamentary standards.

Minister for Women Katy Gallagher.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Three years after former staffer Brittany Higgins revealed she was raped in a ministerial office in 2019, the new laws aim for the first time to hold MPs, staffers and others working in Parliament House accountable for their actions.

Cross-party support will be needed to pass the much-delayed independent parliamentary standards into law, as Minister for Women Katy Gallagher aims for it to be up and running in October.

A draft structure leaked to this masthead in April revealed the potential powers of the commission which faced backlash from all sides of the political spectrum for either going too far or not far enough.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission was supposed to be operational by the end of 2023 but the parliamentary leadership taskforce – a bipartisan group of politicians led by Gallagher – was mired in delays and disputes as it worked to reach an agreement on the new watchdog’s powers.

It comes three years after former sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins’ November 2021 report, Set the Standard, called for the creation of the commission, which would have the power to levy punishments for serious breaches of workplace safety, such as sexual assault, violence, harassment, bullying and discrimination.

Gallagher said $3.8 million has been allocated this financial year to establish the commission after Jenkins’ report laid bare “the serious issues of bullying, sexual harassment and sexual assault at parliamentary workplaces”.

“We’ve been working hard to put the systems in place so that people can raise workplace complaints, and when complaints are substantiated, that both staff and parliamentarians are held to account for their behaviour,” Gallagher said.

If the legislation passes, the watchdog would be helmed by a chair commissioner working with seven to nine part-time commissioners. At least four would need to be women.

Parliamentarians, staffers, journalists and lobbyists can take a complaint to the commission and if behaviour codes endorsed by parliament in February 2023 are found to have been breached, the commission can decide to investigate the allegations.

While complaints can be referred by a third party, they cannot be anonymous. A person would be required to identify themselves to “reduce the risk of vexatious complaints being made”, the bill’s explanatory memorandum states.

The commissioner will only decide to proceed with an investigation if they are satisfied there is sufficient evidence or information to justify an investigation and in most cases would need consent from the complainant unless the commission was satisfied there was a serious risk to work health or safety.

Politicians would be punished for serious workplace breaches such as bullying or sexual harassment rather than the sort of rowdy behaviour for which MPs have been expelled from the chamber by the speaker.

When an investigation into a current or former politician is completed, the chair commissioner will have to create a panel of three commissioners – the “parliamentarian decision panel” – to prepare a draft report given to the politician for a response.

If serious misconduct is found, the commission’s report would be referred to the parliamentary privileges committee, which would have 60 days to decide whether to recommend sanctions to parliament. The punishment would then have to be ratified by parliament.

The most extreme sanctions the commission could recommend to parliament include a fine of up to 5 per cent of the politicians’ annual base salary or suspension from the parliament. A federal MP’s base salary is $225,742, meaning they could be fined from $4515 to $11,287.

The commission would have the power to name and shame politicians in a public statement if they are either repeat offenders or they fail to comply with sanctions.

Gallagher presented the bill to caucus on Tuesday, which was passed after three questions were asked on how it would deal with vexatious complaints, whether complaints can be referred to the police and if witnesses can make complaints.

In April, after the historic judgement in the Lehrmann defamation case found on the balance of probabilities that Higgins was raped in a ministerial office at federal parliament, Gallagher said the need for the commission was obvious.

“I think the fact that we’ve had a decision of a judge that found a rape happened in this building should give us more purpose and focus to getting that job done quickly,” Gallagher said in April.

“Which is, you know, where this [commission] originated from, the review into what happened in this building and what was happening towards women in particular.”

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter here.