Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) | Hansard source

The Greens support the Parliamentary Workplace Reform (Set the Standard Measures No. 1) Bill 2022 as a tiny step in the right direction by implementing two recommendations of the Set the standard report. There is still so much to do, but this is a start. These amendments will prevent staff from being able to be arbitrarily fired for no reason other than that they have become a political problem for their employer. We know from Set the standard that the broad powers of parliamentarians to fire staff without cause has been a significant barrier. It has stopped staff from coming forward because they fear that their job, not the job of their abuser, would be at risk if they did.

Requiring reasons to be given is not a complete solution, and we know that this change alone will not change the culture of shaming in silence that stops staff from coming forward. That cultural shift requires full implementation of the Set the standard recommendations: a robust, independent and well-resourced complaints process; trauma-informed training for all parliamentarians and senior staff; a code of conduct with meaningful options to sanction abusers and those who facilitate or ignore abuse; and genuine work for a more inclusive and representative parliament and parliamentary workforce. The Greens support this full suite of measures and will work to ensure the parliament adopts them as a matter of urgency.

The bill also makes clear that all parliamentarians have obligations, as officers under the Work Health and Safety Act, to provide a safe workplace. We welcome that. But the Respect@Work report made it clear that those obligations are not enough to protect staff against harassment, bullying and assault. What is needed in this workplace and in others is a positive duty on officers to ensure that staff are safe—where there is a zero tolerance policy in action, not just in words, and where appropriate support is available. A positive duty was the foundation of the Respect@Work recommendations for making workplaces safe. Without that duty, other reforms are built on very shaky ground.

The government voted against amendments moved by the Greens and Labor last year to introduce a positive duty. Despite vague assurances that they are working on it, we are yet to see a positive duty. Belatedly, yesterday, the Attorney-General's department released a discussion paper seeking consultation on a positive duty and several other outstanding recommendations under the Respect@Work report. Again, we welcome that progress but question why it has taken so long. Despite it being a key recommendation of a report delivered to the government nearly two years ago, workers are unlikely to get the protection of a positive duty before the election. The Greens will continue to push for a positive duty until every worker in every workplace feels safe and respected.

The final thing this bill does is ensure that MOP(S) Act staff are covered by the Age Discrimination Act and the Disability Discrimination Act. This fills critical gaps in the protections offered to MOP(S) Act staff. It is also a reminder that the abuse detailed in the Set the standard report is extensive and varied. The attention has been on sexual harassment and assault but we must not ignore the reports of racism, ableism and ageism in this place. People of colour, people with disability and older women have all reported that their harassment was compounded by discrimination—that they were targeted more, believed and supported less and, too often, driven from this workplace. We can't look around this room and pretend we don't have a representation problem.

The bravery of women like Rachelle Miller, Chelsey Potter, Brittany Higgins, Josie Coles, Saxon Mullins, Chanel Contos and Grace Tame is a key reason that we are even debating this bill today. But it is critical to remember those courageous women are not the only ones who have been abused, they are not the only ones who have come forward. Too often the experiences of women of colour, people with disability, older women and LGBTIQA+ people are ignored, diminished or misunderstood. My Senate colleagues Senator Thorpe, Senator Faruqi and Senator Cox can all attest to this. Each of them experiences abuse and harassment within this building, outside it and online that I cannot even imagine. It's appalling and shameful, and it will persist without serious cultural change. Until we have a more diverse and inclusive parliament and parliamentary workforce, this problem will not go away.

Last week my Senate colleague Senator Waters, the Greens' leader in the Senate, read a statement from survivor Dhanya Mani, who has pleaded with this parliament and directly to the Prime Minister to acknowledge the lack of diversity and to ensure that women of colour are not written out of the story of why things need to change:

If this parliament fails to act, it is tacitly endorsing and aggravating impenetrable barriers to equality for diverse, minority, identifying Australians. This country cannot achieve inclusive healthy progress for women in political life until and unless we start recognising and validating the vital work of women of colour and First Nations women in making opportunities for feminist cultural reckoning and reform possible.

On behalf of the Greens, I welcome this bill. I also urge the government to act decisively on recommendations 5 to 9 of the Set the standard report, to improve access, diversity and inclusivity in this place. This bill is the first tiny step in the right direction. It finally does some of the things that Dhanya and others have been asking the government to do for years. The Greens will work to ensure that this parliament urgently takes the rest of the steps needed to really turn things around and make parliamentary workplaces, and all workplaces, safe, equal, inclusive and respectful.

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