James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of this very important bill and also the amendment that the shadow Attorney-General, the member for Berowra, canvassed in his speech in the second reading debate. I'd like to start by thanking the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins, for all of her excellent work towards this totemic report, the Respect@Work report, which was handed to government a couple of years ago. Many of the recommendations in that report have already been enacted, and, as has been indicated by the minister, this will see the last remaining recommendations from that report that require legislative implementation to occur.

I absolutely support seeing the full implementation of the recommendations from that report, and I completely respect the fact that the commissioner undertook that report and made those recommendations on the basis that, of course, they are all as equally worthy as any individual one. Having that report fully implemented will achieve what she seeks to do—and we all hope that that will indeed be the case once we've finalised the implementation of this—which is a dramatic improvement in the way in which women are treated in workplaces in this country.

When I was a member of the previous government, we went a long way to putting in place a wide range of the recommendations from the report. Equally, we did want to consult on some of the final measures, which are those that are coming before us in this bill, the Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Bill 2022, because we do want to make sure that employers and businesses have had the opportunity to look at what's been recommended in these final measures and put forward any sensible, constructive feedback around potential unforeseen issues that might not have been fully recognised in the compiling of the report and now this bill. We have had the opportunity to receive that feedback from a wide variety of stakeholders in the sector.

I reiterate that we absolutely support ensuring that we put in place the final recommendations of that report, and we do think there are some very constructive, but not overly significant, changes to the bill that will remove any potential unintended or unnecessary red tape and regulation for business, without in any way undermining the spirit and the purpose of the recommendations from the report. The shadow Attorney-General outlined them very eloquently in his second reading debate speech—things like perhaps recognising that the Fair Work Ombudsman is a better body for businesses to deal with rather than the Human Rights Commission on some of these matters, given they have interaction with the Fair Work Commission as it is. That would include still having the exact same powers recommended but putting them with the Fair Work Ombudsman.

A lot of small businesses in particular, with the best of intentions, have enough trouble in making sure that they are across all of their obligations and responsibilities and in making sure that they are doing the right thing when it comes to their various requirements under the Fair Work Act and other acts that they must comply with. I've got a lot of sympathy for the suggestion from those groups, which we are seeking to suggest very constructively to the government, that, if we could help businesses to not have unnecessary additional complexity and confusion around the various bodies that they have to deal with and if it is possible that the Fair Work Ombudsman could be considered to be the appropriate body for them to interact with, that would be good.

There are obviously other issues that we address in our amendments around perhaps giving a bit more certainty to businesses in understanding what their obligations are and what the thresholds and the tests should be for them when it comes to what standard they need to meet. Some of these areas have no case law, as we know, and maybe it is the case that we'll have to revisit some of these things, if our amendments are not considered, in the future if the case law goes in a certain direction that we didn't necessarily intend.

We absolutely are doing this to make sure that we are providing a very robustly safe and protected environment for women in the workplace from some of the horrendous experiences that have come out through not only the second readings in this chamber but also the submissions to consultation on the bill and, of course, the primary submissions through the work of Kate Jenkins. We want to see an outcome that makes sure that, in the future, women in this country never have to go through some of those awful experiences that were articulated in the process of the report. And it is not just women, obviously, but we understand that the extreme burden and quantity of examples put forward were from women who have suffered mistreatment and harassment in the workplace. I'm very proud to be here speaking in favour of a bill which overwhelmingly is going to address that. I think that that will be a great outcome for the workplaces of this country and great outcome for the standards that we set in our society and the culture of this nation.

I thank all in the debate for their constructiveness. I'm very pleased to support it. I hope the government will be prepared to consider the reasoning, which is coming from a place of wanting to absolutely ensure we still achieve the objective of the implementation of these final recommendations, taking into account what we believe are some very constructive and sensible suggestions from people that will have to deal with this legislation and have put forward examples where slight changes would achieve the same outcome but not put a significant burden on them from a compliance point of view. Hopefully, that is considered in good faith. Nonetheless, I absolutely support the bill. I will be very pleased to see this pass through the parliament to see the final elements of implementing the Respect@Work recommendation from Commissioner Jenkins. I think it will be a great outcome for the workplaces, culture and society of this nation. I commend the bill to the House.

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