Parliamentary abuse investigations delayed

Victims of alleged sexual assault and bullying in parliament will have to resubmit their complaints if they want perpetrators punished by a powerful new commission established last month, delaying investigations into alleged wrongdoing.

Independent senator Lidia Thorpe, who made a complaint of sexual harassment more than a year ago to the existing support service that only delivers counselling and mediation, said the process was “re-traumatising” victims by forcing them through unnecessary hoops.

Independent senator Lidia Thorpe is frustrated at the process, branding it “re-traumatising”.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“If I am made to restart this process with this new complaints body, that’s a failure on their part,” Thorpe said.

Parliament passed laws establishing the Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission (IPSC) in August with the power to investigate claims of misconduct in politics and recommend sanctions, including fines.

The existing Parliamentary Workplace Support Service (PWSS) was granted interim powers to receive misconduct complaints before the commission was established, including Thorpe’s allegations from June 2023 made in the Senate, accusing MP David Van of “harassment”. Thorpe withdrew that claim but then said in the Senate that an unnamed person “followed, aggressively propositioned and inappropriately touched” her.

Van rejected the allegation in person and released a statement saying Thorpe had made “unfounded and completely untrue allegations against me that I immediately and unequivocally denied and continue to deny”.

This masthead revealed on Sunday that the support service had handled 339 cases – spanning everything from serious sexual crime allegations to bullying and mental health issues – within nine months but received fewer than 10 formal complaints.

Under the legislation creating the commission, many complainants who want a punishment imposed will have to restart their case.

“I have been waiting for over a year, and while the PWSS staff are doing their best, they don’t have enough power,” Thorpe said. “It’s not good enough. These matters should be transferred to the IPSC if that’s what the complainant wants.”

The legislation specifies that complainants who have a case before the support service have the option to see their case completed there. That would allow the human resources body to prepare a report of the review and make private recommendations that may satisfy some complainants.

Alternatively, people can restart their case under the more powerful commission.

Parliamentary staff said that they were briefed that the support service would not be able to transfer most cases to the new commission.

A spokesperson for the support service said that “under certain circumstances and with the agreement of complainants the PWSS will be able to transfer existing cases to the IPSC”.

Workplace lawyer Josh Bornstein, of Maurice Blackburn, said people wanting an “enforcement role” could go to the commission. “It can investigate, and its investigations can lead to limited sanctions and penalties,” Bornstein said.

But Bornstein said complainants who wanted a more formal investigation would have to start their case from the beginning, which he described as a “trauma uninformed approach”.

Health Minister Mark Butler conceded on Sunday that Parliament House was still an unsafe place to work, and Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said on Monday the problem was in all workplaces.

New data released by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency on Monday revealed more than one in four employers are not monitoring how prevalent sexual harassment and discrimination is in the workplace.

“We do need to change Parliament House as a workplace,” Plibersek said on Seven’s Sunrise.

Sex Discrimination Commissioner Anna Cody told ABC on Monday she was unsurprised by the number of complaints, but evidence of cultural change wouldn’t be available until next year.

National sexual assault, family & domestic violence counselling line: 1800 737 732. Crisis support can be found at Lifeline: 13 11 14.

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