Phillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I thank the House for the opportunity to make a brief statement on this report. I know all of us in this place agree that there is no place for violence or harassment of any kind in the workplace, and I know that's something all Australians would agree on. That's why it has been so important that the committee has given consideration to this convention and endorsed its ratification. The committee received evidence on the significant numbers of incidents of behaviour, all of which are unacceptable and are condemned in the strongest terms. That's why adopting this convention was one of the key actions of the former coalition government in response to the recommendations of the Jenkins report, which was commissioned by the then government, with all recommendations either accepted or noted before the last election.

The former government and now opposition supports the International Labour Organization's moves to counter violence and harassment in the workplace. In fact, then minister Senator Cash attended the International Labour Organization's conference in Geneva in June 2019, and the government had an active role in the development of the convention. It is good that we in this place have already made moves to comply with our obligations under this convention, including providing funding of more than $70 million for the implementation of the Respect@Work Roadmap for Respect over the 2020, 2021 and 2022 budgets; passing the Sex Discrimination and Fair Work (Respect at Work) Amendment Act 2021; establishing the Respect@Work Council, which is leading implementation of a number of key Respect@Work report recommendations; and substantially boosting legal assistance to provide for specialist lawyers with workplace and discrimination law expertise, with an additional $43.9 million in funding. As the report notes:

… Australia is already compliant with the Convention's obligations, but the evidence also indicated that violence and harassment in the world of work is still an extensive problem …

It also notes the committee's view:

… that the Convention should be ratified, but that ratification should not be viewed as an end in itself.

We must always be doing everything we can to eliminate violence and harassment in the workplace.

This report also covers consideration of amendments to the Rotterdam Convention relating to two chemicals. We support that action.

I thank the committee members; of course, the chair; the inquiry participants; and the secretariat, for their hard work on this report, and I commend it to the House.

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