At the beginning of the year the commentariat were almost as one in predicting an early federal election. There was much to be said for it. Australia was emerging from a pandemic, returning to economic growth, solid employment growth figures and the hope of a successful roll out of the vaccine.
No doubt the public discourse will at some point return to these issues and the Morrison government, led by its two of its leading lights, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Health Minister Greg Hunt will be desperate to direct the conversation in that direction.
But in February came the Brittney Higgins allegations. Home Affairs Minister, Peter Dutton told the House in Question Time yesterday those allegations, “May well result in an arrest and a criminal trial here in the ACT or in some other jurisdiction.”
That remark reveals the broader issue of gendered violence and workplace harassment are not going away.
The most recent revelations of sex workers prowling the corridors of parliament and a male staffer filming himself masturbating over a female MP’s desk before sharing the lurid footage with colleagues, merely reinforce the view the federal parliament is a cesspit of juvenile behaviour with largely unaccountable staff running amok in waves of toxic masculinity.
Amid this furore, the Prime Minister sought to take control of the issue yesterday, speaking with personal references as he often does, of the struggles women face.
It was going well until SkyNews political editor, Andrew Clennell chipped in with a question claiming the Prime Minister, who maintains he was virtually the last to know of the Higgins matter, had lost control of his own staff. Morrison snapped and proceeded to make an unfounded claim that a News Corp journalist was the subject of a harassment complaint.
The Prime Minister was peddling Canberra bubble gossip, something he insists he avoids, having, he claims, acquired the capacity for voluntary deafness when this sort of scuttlebutt is raised in his presence.
Asked about it in Question Time yesterday, the PM stuck to his guns, insisting he was “simply making the point that the problems we are experiencing in this country are not confined simply to the offices of members, senators and ministers in this place; they go well beyond that. The way I referred to these matters today was in an anonymised way.”
An apology came from the Prime Minister last night, but members of the press gallery reported that the PMO continued to background journalists that included the name of one journalist throughout the day.
As Clennell said afterwards, it was a moment that supported a view of Morrison within his own party that he possesses a Waterford mandible; a Prime Minister who doesn’t cope with criticism and shuns responsibility.
The problem the government faces in part is messaging and it is not helped by the fact that the Prime Minister presents as a batsman who comes to the crease only to lose his bottle over a sledge from first slip.
Had the Prime Minister restrained himself at the press conference in the manner that he did in Question Time (by which time the damage was done), he might have made the sensible point that the federal parliament is a mere reflection of broader society and that Australian workplaces in general are not safe places for women, or for that matter, some men.
A survey commissioned by the Office of the Sex Discrimination Commissioner in 2018 found 39 per cent of women and 26 per cent of men have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace at some point in the previous five years. 79 per cent of the harassers, according to the survey, were men.
Those are extraordinary figures, and they speak of great personal trauma for many Australians as well as a significant blow to national productivity.
The Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Dr Kate Jenkins has been invited by the Prime Minister to examine parliamentary work practices which almost certainly will give rise to an independent authority to examine claims and allegations in future. But the report is not due until November where we might have a better view of the extent of the problem in the federal parliament.
Another report by Dr Jenkins, this one commissioned by the Turnbull Government into sexual harassment and sexual violence in the workplace was handed to the government in January 2020. Fifteen months later, it is yet to be tabled.
The report, Respect@Work, was published in January 2020. The executive summary contains 55 recommendations, none of which have been acted on. Some of the recommendations are contentious, some require legislation, others require money and resources.
In other words, what’s required is a debate in the community with the government showing a willingness to listen and act. But 15 months in, there’s no sign of either.
It is not just messaging but intent the government lacks. The Prime Minister finally showed yesterday that he appreciates the scope and nature of the problem but as yet, there’s little or no action. This allows Labor to get a pass on their own men behaving badly and leaves the government with all the work to do.
The political or electoral ramifications surrounding the issue of sexual harassment and sexual violence towards women are yet to be seen but at 51 per cent of the voting public, you’d better believe it will have a serious impact on voting behaviour when that time comes. How much is in the deep unknown, but it could be devastating for the incumbent, especially one slow to comprehend the extent of the anger in the community and stumbling and mumbling in its response.
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