Jo Briskey (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On any given day when this parliament is sitting, there are upwards of 4,000 people inside this building. A quarter of these people are employed under the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act, and more than half of these 4,000 people are supported by the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service Act. When you walk into this building during a sitting week, you are greeted with an ecosystem that is unlike any other. It feels like its own city within a city, with many siloed departments. Because of this, at times, some have lost sight of the fact that this building may be the home of democracy but it is first and foremost a workplace for thousands of Australians. It is the responsibility of this parliament to never forget this fact. The Set the standard report commissioned by Kate Jenkins did not appear out of nowhere. It emerged from the lived experiences of staff who endured cultures that were at times toxic and harmful. It was a moment of reckoning for this parliament—a recognition that for too long some of the people who keep this place running felt invisible, unsupported and unsafe.

When we talk about the people who work in this building, I want to be clear about who we are talking about. We are talking about the staffer who flies across the country with their MP to serve their community. We're talking about the House and Senate staff who endure long proceedings and ensure that proceedings run smoothly no matter how late the sitting goes. We're talking about the security officers who keep this building safe, the cleaners who begin work long before many of us arrive, the catering staff who keep the building running, and the advisers whose work underpins the decisions made in this Chamber. All of these people find themselves working long hours in a high-pressure environment. The parliament asks a great deal of them. It is only right that the systems designed to support them are fair and fit for purpose.

One of the most significant outcomes of the Jenkins review was the establishment of the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service, PWSS. The PWSS represents a fundamental shift in how this parliament responds when things go wrong and the education required to change culture. It is a dedicated, confidential, trauma informed service designed to support staff navigating difficult situations. Since its establishment, the PWSS has assisted hundreds of people by providing advice, mediation and, in some cases, complex case management. For many staff, it has created a pathway to raise concerns that previously would have felt impossible. The PWSS does important work to support parliamentary workplaces that are made up of multiple workplaces, each with their own cultures. They are populated by people who work under multiple different employment arrangements and who do not report to one central agency.

Crucially, we must remember that this ecosystem extends far beyond the physical footprint of this capital. It reaches directly into electorate offices like mine in Moonee Ponds and into every single community across the country. The staff in our local offices are often serving as the first point of contact for Australians who are vulnerable or in distress. Every day they manage heavy, emotionally taxing case work and work tirelessly to resolve local issues. They do all of this whilst being geographically isolated from the immediate resources of Canberra. These local teams face a distinctly different set of daily workplace pressures and safety risks compared to those working in this building, yet they are employed by, governed by and entirely reliant upon the exact same central legislative frameworks. If the systems meant to protect them are fragmented or misaligned, it is these staffers who are most at risk of being left behind. That complexity is precisely why this legislation is necessary.

The work that has gone into changing the standards of this complex ecosystem cannot continue to be reviewed in isolation. Currently, the laws that govern this building are on different review cycles. This creates a patchwork of oversight. We review one law while another is mid-cycle, meaning we never truly see how they interact on the ground. This bill changes that. It aligns the statutory reviews of these three acts so they can be conducted as one holistic review during the 48th Parliament.

Why does this matter? It's because the staff who work in this building deserve to be supported, to have access to adequate resources and to be given real job security. The MOP(S) Act outlines their employment, the PWSS Act is a support and learning system and the PBR Act is the resources some use to do their job. You cannot review and fix one without understanding the others. As part of the recent MYEFO, our government committed $7.5 million to support this comprehensive review. We see this not as a bureaucratic tidy-up but as a major investment in ensuring these frameworks are fit for a modern, diverse and evolving workplace.

This bill also extends the frequency of future periodic reviews of the PWSS Act from every parliamentary term to every five years. This does make the review less frequent, but it provides stability, which helps continue the deep cultural change of the kind that we are trying to achieve, and the time it needs to bed down. By moving to a five-year cycle we give these reforms the space to actually work before we pull them apart again to see if they are functioning. Cultural reform does not happen overnight. It cannot be measured solely through the short cycles of legislative review. The changes initiated through the Jenkins review require time to embed, to influence workplace behaviour and to build trust among the people they are designed to support. It allows us to gather real data and meaningful feedback from staff and unions.

I want to acknowledge the role played by the Community and Public Sector Union and its members in advocating for better conditions in this building. The Set the standard report highlighted that many staff employed under the MOP(S) Act felt disconnected from traditional workplace protections and industrial processes. That sense of isolation was deeply felt. But, through the advocacy of workers, through the work of the Jenkins review and through the most recent enterprise bargaining agreement negotiations, we have seen meaningful progress. When workers are able to organise and speak collectively about their experiences, institutions improve. That is as true in this building as it is in workplaces across the country.

Earlier I spoke about the risk of forgetting that this is a workplace. For many Australians, Parliament House can feel distant, an institution that they see on their televisions rather than a place filled with thousands of ordinary working people. But those people are here every day. They are the staff who answer phones, draft legislation, organise community visits, maintain the building, prepare committee hearings and keep the machinery of democracy moving. When my daughters, Gweny and Margot, come to visit this place, I want them to see more than the grandeur of the building or the theatre of the parliamentary debate. I want them to see a workplace that reflects the values we expect across the country—a workplace where people feel safe raising concerns, a workplace that recognises the pressures faced by working parents, a workplace where respect is not an aspiration but a standard.

This bill may deal with statutory reviews, legislative alignment and timelines. It is technical legislation. But, beneath those technical provisions, we are ensuring that the thousands of Australians who work in this building are supported by systems that are coherent, effective and fair. It continues the work begun through the Jenkins review and reinforces this parliament's commitment to building a safer, more respectful workplace for everyone who serves our democracy. I commend the bill to the House.

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