I’ll stamp out sexual abuse: Scott Morrison

PM to eliminate sexual harassment, bullying and excessive drinking outlined in damning report on Parliament.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison holds a press conference after the Jenkins Review into sexual discrimination of parliament workplace was handed down. Picture: Adam Taylor

Scott Morrison will move to end the “appalling” culture and behaviour in Parliament House and enforce sweeping reforms to stamp out sexual harassment, bullying and excessive drinking that have been outlined in a damning 456-page report into parliamentary workplaces.

Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins’ independent review into parliamentary workplaces, released on Tuesday, makes 28 recommendations on restrictions on alcohol, gender equality targets and diversity, updated codes of conduct for MPs and their staff, and new oversight bodies to handle complaints.

Negotiations between political parties, led by Finance Minister Simon Birmingham and Special Minister of State Ben Morton, will begin this week and focus on what can be done immediately and what will take longer to implement.

The Prime Minister said the government would respond to the report in “good faith” and work quickly to fix “deficiencies and appalling behaviour” inside Parliament House.

“This is not new to this place, and it is applied to governments, workplaces, past, present, going back over a long period of time. And it’s important we understand that, because these sort of cultures don’t appear in a short period of time. They’ve been around a long time,” Mr Morrison said.

“Stresses in workplaces such as this are real. But this is no ­excuse whatsoever to normalise inappropriate, unhealthy and unprofessional behaviour. Just because what you do is important and stressful and demanding can never normalise that behaviour as being somehow OK.

“It’s not OK. And we all need to understand the drivers here. Of course, we do important things in this place. It’s a great privilege to be here and do those things. That should only stress upon us the need for those higher standards, not for lesser.”

The Jenkins review, commissioned in March after the alleged sexual assault of former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins and multiple reports of inappropriate behaviour, has found that of those surveyed, more than 50 per cent of people working in parliament had experienced bullying, sexual harassment or sexual assault.

 

Of those who experienced sexual harassment, 26 per cent had been targeted by parliamentarians and only 11 per cent had reported the incidents.

The report, which was based on 1723 individual contributions from 33 organisations – including 490 interviews, 302 written submissions and 11 focus groups – states that 64 per cent of MPs have not had adequate training on dealing with bullying, sexual harassment or sexual assault.

Ms Jenkins recommends that two new bodies be created to oversee workplace culture in parliament and provide centralised human resources support to political staff.

The review calls for the establishment of an Independent Parliamentary Standards Comm­ission within 12-months, which would be armed with powers to handle formal misconduct complaints. A separate body called the Office of Parliamentarian Staffing and Culture would make it more difficult to terminate staff, who would also be granted access to the unfair dismissal provisions in the Fair Work Act.

The report pushes for greater diversity among parliamentarians, including gender targets, under a 10-year strategy and the elimination of “language, behaviour and practices that are sexist or otherwise exclusionary and ­discriminatory”.

With excessive drinking identified as contributing to poor workplace behaviour, the review calls for the development and implementation of “consistent and comprehensive alcohol policies across commonwealth parliamentary workplaces with a view to restricting availability”.

Former prime minister Julia Gillard said the Jenkins review showed “it’s time to change our federal parliament forever”.

“We need a code of conduct and an effective way of receiving and acting on complaints. The Jenkins review gives us this,” Ms Gillard said.

Ms Gillard – who leads the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership – urged all political parties to urgently implement the parliamentary reforms.

Ms Higgins said she hoped Ms Jenkins’ report “inspired immediate action”.

“I want to thank the many brave people who shared their stories which contributed to this review. I hope all sides of politics not only commit to but implement these recommendations in full,” she added.

Mr Morrison said elected members of parliament were effectively “employers”, which presented unique challenges in managing workplaces.

“That doesn’t provide an excuse for unprofessional and other inappropriate and unhealthy and unlawful behaviour.

“We have our specific challenges to address here. And I think … the independence of the complaints process, the independence of providing counselling support and the anonymity of that process … is incredibly important.

“The support that is needed to be provided to employers is really challenging,” Mr Morrison said.

“People who come to this place don’t always come having worked in a large organisation with large amounts of human resource experience.

“We brought people into this parliament from every walk of life. And then they are here and they are an employer and they have ­responsibilities as employers.”

Ms Jenkins said her report provided “simple solutions to a ­complex problem” and brought Parliament House in line with workplaces around the nation.

Labor said it was committed to improving conditions for staff, MPs and public service employees and changing the culture inside Parliament House. Tanya Plibersek, Katy Gallagher and Don Farrell released a statement saying Labor would consult with staff on its response. “This is their workplace, and they deserve nothing less than a safe, respectful and supportive environment,” it said.

Greens deputy leader Larissa Waters said all 28 recommendations should be adopted.