Code of conduct won’t stop men behaving badly

Reports of a senator growling like a dog at a female colleague moments after parliament’s “lad culture” was exposed proves nothing can stop men behaving badly.

No code of conduct can force men to behave like decent human beings.

Just three hours after the Jenkins Review into federal parliament workplace culture was tabled, a senator was accused of growling and making dog noises while Senator Jacqui Lambie was talking.

Victorian Liberal Senator David Van denied growling, but it was clearly heard by a number of politicians.

It wasn’t an isolated incident. Women in the country’s highest political chamber are used to being treated like animals.

It doesn’t just happen there.

A former Miss Universe, Olivia Rogers, has urged women to stand up to sexual predators after being assaulted on the dance floor at the Hotel Esplanade in July 2019.

She’s right, but the onus shouldn’t just be on women to make complaints – it should be on men to behave properly in the first place.

The federal parliament review by Sexual Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins, established after the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins, found one in three workers interviewed had experienced sexual harassment.

The review’s report said women experienced sexual harassment at a higher rate than men – 40 per cent compared to 26 per cent. Men were overwhelmingly the perpetrators.

Alarmingly, a quarter of those who were harassed said the abuser was a parliamentarian.

And two-thirds of female politicians themselves reported being harassed, often by their peers.

It’s telling that the Prime Minister called the findings shocking and appalling but not surprising.

This suggests he was aware of the culture, and yet nothing was done about it by him, or any of his predecessors on either side of politics.

As Jenkins pointed out: “The sexism, the sexual harassment, the drinking, the ‘work hard, play hard’ kind of culture has been around for a long time.”

Jenkins found a lad culture of boozing, after-hours fraternisation and new women being treated like fresh meat.

Men stuck their tongues down women’s throats, kissed them in lifts knowing there were no cameras around, touched them, patted them, made comments about their appearances and plied them with alcohol to make them acquiescent. When they didn’t acquiesce, they forced themselves on them. They were tormented, abused, harassed and even raped.

When bad things happened, the victims knew there was no point making a complaint – they were taught not to “make a fuss”.

Those who did knew it was likely to come at a great cost, not only to their careers, but their marriages, health and sanity.

Standards must improve, from the chamber downwards.

It’s telling that only 16 of those who contributed to the report are former or current politicians.

The 28 recommendations – including a crackdown on alcohol in Parliament House, codes of conduct and more gender parity – need to be implemented in full.

I would like to think that our country’s elected officials don’t need a code of conduct to tell them not to abuse, harass or demean their fellow workers.

But sadly, it seems to be necessary.

Jenkins knows that appealing to their higher sense of humanity is pointless – that’s why she suggests suspending offenders, docking their salaries and cutting their communications and travel budgets.

Let’s hope change comes swiftly and standards improve.

Until this happens, men who should know better will continue getting away with behaving badly.