Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) | Hansard source

I rise in this chamber to support the bill before the House. The Parliamentary Workplace Reform (Set the Standard Measures No. 1) Bill 2022 seeks to implement a number of the recommendations made by the Jenkins review and to improve the protections of staff within Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces. Over the course of the past 12 months, in particular, many times we have heard horrific stories relating to experiences of staff, particularly young women, in this place. Each time a survivor has come forward to share their story, it has struck a chord with our country. It is clear that there is an immediate and overwhelming need for cultural reform and for decisive action in order to address these issues, which is why Labor has worked very constructively and in a bipartisan manner on this bill and statements. It's because it's so important for all of us.

Every workplace in this country should be safe and free from harassment and assault, and the federal parliament should be setting the standard with regard to workplace culture, protections and, of course, safety. The reality is that Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces have failed to ensure safe environments and equitable treatment for staff. Not only are we failing to meet these basic standards of respect and workplace protection; we are lagging behind almost all other workplaces in the nation.

Many times when the Morrison government have addressed the issue of parliamentary culture publicly their attitudes have been somewhat disrespectful to those who have experienced harm in this place. There have been suggestions from some members of the coalition that some of these cultural issues within the parliament can be attributed to the inherently stressful nature of the work that we do here. It's as if long hours are a justification for this sort of harassment and assault. The justification is particularly offensive in the concept of current workplace conditions experienced by many across Australia. For example, healthcare workers and aged-care staff are on shifts for sometimes 12 hours or more. Paramedics run a 10-14 shift—that is, a 10-hour shift and a 14-hour shift. They are often understaffed, overworked and underpaid. But, every day, they do work that is just as stressful and just as taxing as the work that we do here. At least they have a positive outcome by generally saving people's lives.

As we complained about staying here until the early hours of the morning to pass legislation last week, there were thousands of healthcare workers across the country also awake, working in full PPE in difficult and stressful conditions to keep other Australians alive. These workers have not engaged in or sought to justify the kinds of acts that have been perpetrated in this building and that we heard about throughout the course of the Jenkins review. For it to be considered the stressors of this place justify this sort of abuse and harassment is really an insult to those who have experienced harm in Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces and those who work in far more difficult and stressful conditions than we experience here.

The substance of the Jenkins review has been deeply troubling. It's something that I, like all members, reflected on very deeply. The negative culture that exists in some corners of this place affects all of us, perhaps none more so than young women. I'll talk about a primary staffer in my office, a 21-year-old woman named Maddie. She began working in my office early last year, during the period in which many issues which have prompted the Jenkins review and the current bill before the House came to light. So I sat down and had a chat with her and consulted with her on the process of writing this speech. I was relieved that she has always felt comfortable in her workplace and never felt uncomfortable within the parliament or in the workplace either. But despite that, through conversations with Maddie and other staffers, it became clear that, even for those women within parliamentary workplaces who cannot point to a specific experience of discomfort or harassment, there is a palpable sense of apprehension and almost fear. That apprehension is capable of creating a hostile workplace in itself.

Maddie said that working in parliament had been a dream since she was a young girl. As a 10-year-old, upon hearing that Julia Gillard had become Australia's first female Prime Minister, Maddie said she burst into tears in her year 5 class. She was upset because she had wanted to be Australia's first female Prime Minister. She's got plenty of time and a good chance ahead of her; keep an eye on her! Working in parliament and as a staffer had been her dream for a long time. In early 2021 she was offered her first job as a parliamentary staffer, at the height of the media attention spotlight cast upon the conditions that exist for women within this building. She said she had an element of hesitancy about taking the job.

The seemingly endless series of stories relating to staffing culture and inadequate conditions for women creates a barrier to women's engagement in politics. Many women, rightly so, are apprehensive about engaging in politics for fear of the exact mistreatment that has existed for so many decades in this place. As a result, many have decided not to engage and seek careers elsewhere. Australian politics misses out on valuable intellect and insight, and men continue to be overrepresented, facilitating this whole ongoing cycle of harassment and fear.

Maddie fortunately decided to accept the job, and I am grateful for that because she is fantastic—she wrote that bit herself, by the way; I'll just put that in! She said she believes the only way a broken system can change is by people confronting it and working from the inside out to reform it. She said if she turned down the job she had been working towards her whole life because she was afraid, it would mean those perpetrating the fear had won. I commend her on her courage and many other women like her for their courage. But the reality is that she should never have been put in that position to begin with.

This bill is the legacy of women who overcame fear in order to change a broken system. They did so by sharing their stories, participating in reviews and calling out unacceptable behaviour—and sometimes just by turning up to work. In order to ensure that women have the opportunity to engage in politics as staffers, as journalists, as MPs and as senators, in order to ensure we honour the courage of these women who share their experiences, we must make sure we are doing more than just virtue signalling. It must be the first of many steps we take on a path to make real and meaningful change. The onus is on all of us in this place, especially as MPs, to change the system and to ensure that nobody feels fear to engage in the work that is done in this place.

The barriers to engagement for young women in politics have existed for some time. The recent media attention which has been thrust upon them should not be construed as an indication that these issues are only now surfacing, because, in truth, as we know from the Jenkins review, these issues have existed for a long time, and the attitude of this government towards women and female staffers has been present for some time. I want to think about a point that really got to me in 2018. Cast your minds back to two weeks after former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called for cultural change in the way women are treated in this parliament, when the current Attorney-General who was then the Minister for Jobs and Innovation used the privilege of coward's castle during a Senate estimates hearing to make threats to publicly name Labor female staffers. This was disgraceful—a sexist tirade that was predicated upon the innuendo that young female staffers were engaged in affairs. The implications made by the now Attorney-General were baseless lies and deeply offensive to the women working in this building. This was done to serve her own political purposes. The now Attorney-General explicitly threatened these young women and made public allegations without any proof or any rationale for her comments. This is one of the examples that we see of the government responding inappropriately and offensively to issues in workplace culture.

These sexist attitudes have been pervasive since their inception, and have become even clearer over the last 12 months as discussions of parliamentary culture and workplace protections have played a central role in national policy. Disrespecting women by engaging in unsubstantiated inappropriate gossip regarding their personal lives is one of the many factors which contribute to broader harassment and violence against women. The appalling attitude towards women has been present for some time. Little has been done to address the gaping cultural issues within the government over the past few years. Last year, in the wake of the allegations made regarding the unsafe culture within Parliament House and the stories of women who came forward and shared their experiences of physical and mental violence, thousands of Australian men and women marched on Parliament House. They protested peacefully, demanding accountability and demanding justice. And what was the response? The Prime Minister responded by saying they were lucky not to have been met with bullets. This disrespect has been the hallmark of the latest incarnation of this government. There has been an appalling lack of leadership by those responsible for championing cultural change and the rights of survivors. Engaging in politics and our democracy is the birthright of all of us, but when people are afraid to engage in it, it means that we as a collective have failed. Nobody deserves to feel unsafe in their workplace, and we should do all that we can to stop that.

The implementations of the Jenkins review are crucial to ensuring that we head down a new road. Legislation enables us to chart a path to a new and better future, but it's also critical to remember that we are just at the beginning of that path. The work does not end with this bill; in fact, I think it's the point where we sit down and say, 'This is where the real work begins.'

It's crucial for us as MPs to understand our own roles and our power in this place. It's not just the absence of abusive or harassing behaviour, but it's about each of us making an active effort to create positive environments. Culture change is not just about the absence of harm, it's about the creation of good. It's about us devoting ourselves to addressing the issues that have plagued this place. As MPs with power in this place we must be ready and eager to reflect upon our own behaviour. We must be willing to acknowledge instances where we have failed or not lived up to the best of what this place represents. There's no excuse for justifying the horrible things that staff in this building have been forced to endure. Every day we fail to proactively address these issues is a day where we enable the status quo to continue.

This is one of the joys of being a member of a party that is full of incredibly brave, strong and intelligent women. I think that we've been very lucky with the quality of people that we've have had around us. Being in parliament with the likes of Julia Gillard, Jenny Macklin and Tanya Plibersek, to name a few—and, of course, Amanda Rishworth, who is at the table now—I feel that I've been extremely lucky to have worked with these people for a long time and to have a really good grounding in and understanding of the things that matter. What matters is the way that we see the new generation of our people coming in, like the member for Lilley, as an example—that's going to cost you five bucks, Anika! From the progressive side of politics, we've been able to work to address these situations and, really, nip things in the bud before they get out of hand. And that's because we've got strong, talented women in our party that can lead on any given level, on any given topic and on any given policy. That's something that we should be proud of and something that I think Australians will benefit from when we see these people sitting on the other side of the parliament.

There has been no shortage of times throughout the past year when I've been concerned with the government's attitude towards those who have come forward and shared their stories. We must do more than just hope for change. We must work for it. It's my hope that this bill marks the first of many steps we will take to create a better, safer future for those in this building and to become a shining example for those across the country. Now is the time that we put a stake in the ground and say: enough is enough.

The parliament has resolved to establish the Joint Standing Committee on Parliamentary Standards to oversee standards and accountability. These standards are so important that our Labor caucus, which is at the forefront of these things, is committed to working towards implementing all the recommendations from the Set the standard report and to consulting with our parliamentary and electorate staff, unions and workplace representatives as we work towards the implementation. Our staff are our priority in this process. It is their workplace, and they deserve nothing less than a safe, supported work environment. Our long-held view in Labor includes a commitment to ensure our parliamentary workplaces are safe and respectful for everyone and a commitment to gender equality, including the need to promote and support women's leadership in the parliament. We know there's a lot to be done, but the thing with Labor is that we know that an Albanese government is committed to working with all parties to ensure the safety of everyone that works here.

See this speech in context