Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That standing order 91 be amended as follows:

91 Disorderly conduct   

A Member's conduct shall be considered disorderly if the Member has:

(a)persistently and wilfully obstructed the House;

(b)used objectionable words, which he or she has refused to withdraw;

(c)behaved in a manner that fails to treat others with dignity, courtesy, fairness and respect;

(d)persistently and wilfully refused to conform to a standing order;

(e)wilfully disobeyed an order of the House;

(f)persistently and wilfully disregarded the authority of the Speaker; or

(g)been considered by the Speaker to have behaved in a disorderly manner.

Australia has one of the most diverse and successful democracies in the world, and this is something that I think we are all incredibly proud of, but our diversity and the success of this democracy relies on our ability to disagree well. In times of conflict overseas, when we have very strong and very different views about conflicts—which is certainly the case in my community and many communities across the country—there is that need to disagree well and robustly but with dignity, fairness and respect. Those are things that we in this democracy need, and we need to start by showing that here in the parliament. This is the fundamental part of this amendment.

After Brittany Higgins's terrible ordeal in this parliament, the Set the standard report rightly recommended a code of conduct in the parliament that required people to treat people with dignity, courtesy, fairness and respect. But this code of conduct does not apply in this House, and that is a problem because this House is where the community sees parliament. Question time in particular is a time when the community sees the standards that the parliament is in theory trying to set, and the standards that the parliament sets in these times are not the qualities of dignity, courtesy, fairness and respect needed when conducting a robust debate. This is why I believe that, as was recommended in the Set the standard report, the code of conduct should apply in the House, as well as all around, because you cannot do one thing in the House and then walk out of the room and say, 'This is how we're going to behave.'

I did a survey recently on bullying in my electorate, and a comment that came back from one of the mothers affected by bullying was, 'My only comment would be for members of parliament to show more respect to political opponents.' Hear, hear! If we start to show that respect in this place, we can engender that in our community. In our schools, universities and communities, I want us to be able to have robust and passionate debates with dignity, courtesy, fairness and respect, but, if we're going to hold the community to that standard, we need to start to hold ourselves to that standard as well.

I know the government has proposed a variety of changes to the standing orders to set higher penalties in terms of bad behaviour, and there has been a very welcome change in terms of the gender mix in this parliament. But I don't believe that those are enough, nor do I believe that we should be telling the country that you can hold a robust debate without holding those four qualities in hand at the same time. That is what this parliament should expect of itself, and I think that is what the country expects of us as well.

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