Joe Hildebrand: Walt Secord falls on his sword as a martyr to the cause

All it took to force long-serving senior NSW Labor figure Walt Secord to leave politics were allegations of raised voices from Labor staffers in another office, writes Joe Hildebrand.

Eleven days ago a report by former sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick outlined serious allegations of sexual assault and bullying at NSW Parliament.

Naturally, given their nature and a similar finding in the federal parliament, those allegations led news coverage.

The Guardian’s headline on the morning it dropped declared: “Review of NSW parliament uncovers five alleged sexual assaults.”

The bolded standfirst then read: “One in five respondents to Broderick review say they have been sexually harassed, with more than half of the incidents perpetrated by an MP.”

It’s shocking stuff and the Guardian and other outlets were right to lead with the claims of sexual assault.

So why is the only publicly identified villain in this piece and the only MP to forced to resign someone who is accused of nothing remotely sexual whatsoever, nor any allegation of assault, but – wait for it – shouting?

Walt Secord at Parliament House in Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Dylan Coker

Yes, the day the report landed, Labor’s police spokesman Walt Secord was mysteriously outed as having allegedly “bullied” the staff of former Labor leader Jodi McKay.

In other words, the staff he was accused of bullying weren’t even his own – an unusual claim to make in any workplace given that the Fair Work Ombudsman and SafeWork NSW’s definition of bullying is that it is when a person “repeatedly” engages in “unreasonable behaviour”, creating “a risk to health and safety”.

Perhaps Secord did repeatedly shout at McKay’s staffers, even though they didn’t work in his office, and perhaps they did indeed feel their health or safety was put at risk. We don’t know the particulars but that would be the standard they would have to meet to be proven true.

What we do know is that no formal complaints were made until after the report was released and Secord’s head was already on the chopping block.

And this brings us to that other nebulous corner of the bullying trinity – “unreasonable behaviour”.

Former NSW Labor leader Jodi McKay.

In criticising politicians’ behaviour – and rest assured there are many valid criticisms to make – outsiders often lament that parliament is like no other workplace in Australia.

But that’s precisely the point: Parliament House is like no other workplace in Australia.

Other workplaces may be competitive but they do not have one half of the workforce solely dedicated to wiping out the other half.

And that is precisely what the Parliament essentially is, combined with factions within each of those sides often even more dedicated to wiping out each other and overlaid on top of that a level of public scrutiny from journos themselves all scrambling to outdo each other.

So no, it’s not like any other workplace in Australia.

No other workplace even resembles it.

This certainly doesn’t mean that assaults or harassment or bullying should be tolerated, but it does mean that when such claims are made they require an added level of scrutiny.

Far more serious claims were made against former federal Attorney-General Christian Porter and to a lesser extent his ministerial colleague Alan Tudge. They stank of an ideological hit job then and I publicly and repeatedly said so.

Revelations since in the Tudge case and the conspicuous lack of revelations since in the Porter case only confirm this.

Likewise, allegations against ­Andrew Laming were false and proved very costly to those who made them.

Andrew Laming at Parliament House in Canberra.

All the above unproven – and at times explicitly disproven – allegations were sexual and far more ­serious than anything levelled at ­Secord.

And yet Secord immediately, unreservedly and publicly apologised for his behaviour on the very day the report was released – even though he was not named in it and even though he said he did not have the same recollections of these “raised voices”.

Moreover he said he would undertake any training or counselling ­recommended and change his behaviour and he immediately resigned from the front bench.

If the goal of all this is really an ­improved workplace, then you’d think that would be a pretty total ­victory.

But clearly it wasn’t enough, and on Friday Secord announced he was leaving parliament altogether. All ­because he was accused of shouting.

Needless to say this has left a lot of people in politics scratching their heads and girding their loins.

“It’s insane,” said one former NSW Labor staffer.

“As soon as anyone says the word ‘bullying’ you’re essentially gone, even if it’s just an under-pressure MP giving some ‘feedback’.”

Indeed, the fact that politics is a pressure-cooker environment should hardly be a surprise to political staffers, many of whom use the job as a stepping stone to the cauldron of parliament itself – just as Secord did.

And of course the fact that Secord was the first frontbencher to publicly declare support for Chris Minns over McKay would have had nothing to do with the fact that he was complained about by her staff.

Nor would the fact that he has no strong factional or union power base but does have a cast of thousands vying for his upper house spot have anything to do with his resignation.

It’s a pretty odd reward for a man who has arguably done more than any other to ensure that Labor is odds-on to return to power next year after a decade-plus in the wilderness.

But for Secord, who has always served NSW Labor with an almost religious zeal, perhaps his own martyrdom is a fitting end.