Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to be in the Federation Chamber today doing what former Prime Minister Paul Keating developed it to do: to get on with government business by creating a second chamber where more House of Representatives members have more time to be heard in this place and to represent their communities. It is my absolute pleasure to rise today to support the Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Bill 2022 and to thank the Attorney-General, the Hon. Mark Dreyfus KC, for the work in preparing this bill for this government in such a short time. It has us here five months and six days into government, doing what we said we would do.

This bill is central to what we took to the Australian people, because it delivers, in combination with the bill that was introduced in the House this morning by the Hon. Tony Burke. That bill, the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill 2022, is the last piece in the puzzle that delivers on all of the recommendations in the Respect@Work report. This is an extraordinary day in this place. The Respect@Work report obviously is something that was talked about a lot in the lead-up to the election and during the election campaign, and it proved a stark difference between the then government and our government in terms of attitude to the recommendations of that review. This bill that I'm speaking on today puts in most of the pieces, with the other bill introduced to the House to fully implement every recommendation from Respect@Work.

This bill is a is a significant step for preventing sexual harassment in Australian workplaces, and I stand here today and shortly will join colleagues, particularly my female colleagues, as we look at the women's budget report. So today is a good day for Australians, but it's a particularly good day for women who have fought long and hard over decades to get gender equity and to get to a place where sexual harassment stops in Australian workplaces. This bill, with its many aspects, takes us to that place today.

This bill introduces a positive duty, and this is critical to creating safe workplaces and workplaces free from sexual harassment. It creates a positive duty by amending the Sex Discrimination Act 1984, the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 and the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 to provide the commission with the function of assessing and enforcing compliance with a positive duty in the Sex Discrimination Act, which is recommendation 18. It replaced the object clause inserted by the Sex Discrimination and Fair Work (Respect at Work) Amendment Act which stated that an object of the act is to 'achieve equality of opportunity between men and women' with an object to 'achieve substantive equality between men and women'. I think every woman in the country understands the difference in that wording.

This is a bill that creates a significant milestone. It introduces a suite of reforms that are critical for ensuring safer, respectful and more equitable workplaces for all Australians. It will significantly strengthen and clarify the legal and regulatory framework related to sexual harassment in Australia, particularly by introducing the positive duty for employers and persons conducting a business or undertaking to take reasonable, proportionate measures to eliminate sexual harassment and related conduct as far as possible. It will expand the role of the Australian Human Rights Commission in preventing sexual harassment and other forms of sexual discrimination. The bill will, as I've said, introduce a positive duty on employers and persons conducting a business or undertaking to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate sex discrimination.

In passing last night I was talking to my colleague the member for Higgins. I said I was watching a television show recently and it was quite dated. I was doing a bit of retroviewing. There was a scene where a young female police officer in the course of her investigation entered a mechanic's workshop. Centrefold pictures appeared plastered around the walls. This young female police officer was confronted in her work, in having to enter that workplace in the course of her investigation, with these images. I said to the member for Higgins, 'Can you imagine if workplaces still looked like that?' It's a credit to women around this country who have worked so hard—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 10 : 27 to 10 : 54

James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to 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.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Let me start off by being very clear: there is simply no place for sexual harassment of any kind in any workplace. It doesn't matter if you work for the Prime Minister or the Leader of the Opposition, an ASX 100 listed company or a fledgling startup, a school or a university, a hospital or the morgue, a coffee shop or a pub, a factory or a farm, a local fish-and-chip shop or an international burger restaurant. There is no place for sexual harassment of any kind in any workplace. You should not have to face any form of sexual harassment while you are at work. That is why the Albanese government will deliver and fully implement every recommendation on the Respect@Work report, something the Morrison government, shockingly, refused to do. This is what the Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Bill 2022, before the 47th Parliament, will deliver. I should point out that recommendation 28 is being progressed by the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, and we in fact dealt with that earlier today.

Over the past five years, one in three people have experienced sexual harassment at work and, in not-quite-breaking news, women experience much higher rates of harassment than men. First Nations people, people with a disability and members of the LGBTQ+ community are also, on average, more likely to experience workplace sexual harassment. Everyone has the right to a safe and respectful workplace—everyone. The fact that workplaces have not been safe or respectful for so many Australians is completely unacceptable this century. I will say it again: one in three people over the last five years have experienced sexual harassment at work. That is such a truly shocking figure. Sexual harassment is by no means inevitable, and the passage of this bill will move Australia forward in our efforts to prevent workplace sexual harassment from happening in the first place.

This bill, like our first Labor budget, is also part of our important work to progress gender equality, recognising that achieving women's economic equality includes making sure women are safe at work. A national survey conducted in 2018 noted that the most commonly reported types of behaviour were sexually suggestive comments or jokes, intrusive questions about private lives, or inappropriate commentary on a person's physical appearance. Other common actions faced, mainly by women, included repeated invitations to go on dates, sexually explicit pictures, posters, or gifts, inappropriate leering, sexual gestures, indecent exposure, inappropriate physical contact and sexual harassment involving technology.

These sorts of behaviours and actions just do not have a place in modern workplaces. This isn't an episode of Mad Men or a workplace from 60 or 70 years ago where this behaviour was tolerated and often encouraged. Remember that each victim's experience of workplace sexual harassment is unique and influenced by a range of factors. We must be aware and understanding of these. This is worth remembering in your own workplace.

This bill is a significant milestone in delivering on yet another commitment from the Albanese government that we made at the last election. We said to the Australian people that there would be a suite of reforms, and they are now contained in this bill. They are critical for ensuring safe, respectful and more equitable workplaces for all Australians. This bill will significantly strengthen and clarify the legal and regulatory frameworks related to sexual harassment in Australia.

One of the key frameworks in this bill is the introduction of a positive duty for employers and persons conducting a business or an undertaking to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate sexual harassment and related conduct as far as possible. That is so that responsibility resides with those in power. The assessment and enforcing compliance of this new framework will be provided by the Australian Human Rights Commission, within the Sex Discrimination Act. This was recommendation 19 of the Respect@Work report, and it also outlined that the Australian Human Rights Commission should be given powers to require the giving of information, the production of documents and the examination of witnesses, with penalties applying for non-compliance when conducting such inquiries. Recommendation 18 also outlines the measures on what is reasonable and proportionate and some of the factors considered by the commission, such as: the size of the person's business and operations, the nature and circumstances of the person's business or operations, the person's resources, the person's business and operational priorities, the practicability and the cost of the measures, and all other relevant facts and circumstances. We do need one size to fit all, but you've just got to have that individual variation.

Before the men's rights groups work themselves into a lather, I will point out that the Australian Human Rights Commission will treat a small corner store differently to a large, well-resourced multinational company. Nevertheless, at the core of this positive duty, is the need to put this issue front and centre of a business owner's mind. The responsibility resides with those who are in power in the workplace. I'm sure that all in the 47th parliament, be they new arrivals or old hands, will want all employers to stamp out that sort of abhorrent behaviour before it starts. The best way to stop certain behaviour is to be proactive and make sure it doesn't happen in the first place.

This bill will also replace the object clause inserted by the Sex Discrimination and Fair Work (Respect at Work) Amendment Bill 2021, which stated that an object of the act is to achieve equality of opportunity between men and women with an object to achieve substantive equality between men and women, which was actually recommendation 16 (a) of the Respect@Work report. Words are important. This is why this change is also important and directly reflects one of the recommendations from the Respect@Work report. It's important that workplaces are required to take into account individual circumstances and that disadvantages are compensated for, so that the law has equal outcomes for everyone, whether you are a woman, a man or non-binary. This concept is crucial in the workplace. It will also ensure that the provisions relating to sex based harassment in the Sex Discrimination Act extend to conduct of a demeaning nature and not just conduct of a seriously demeaning nature; expressly prohibit conduct that results in a hostile workplace environment on the basis of sex in the Sex Discrimination Act; and will remove residual barriers to enable representative bodies to continue to represent complaints in the Federal Court. It was noted within the Respect@Work report that it was crucial that unions and other representative groups be able to bring representative claims to court, delivering consistency to the existing provisions in the Australian Human Rights Commission Act that allow unions and other representative groups to bring a representative claim to the commission.

The bill will insert a costs protection provision in the Australian Human Rights Commission Act to provide greater certainty to parties during court proceedings in relation to costs. It noted in the report that one of the barriers stopping people from pursuing a sexual harassment matter in the federal jurisdiction is the risk of a costs order. This is an important inclusion as we want those affected by sexual harassment to not stop and think about whether it's worth taking further action or not based on the financial implications for them. A society that prevents access to justice because of costs is not actually a truly just society. We want people to know that, if they're victims of sexual harassment at work, they can pursue matters federally, which will now be consistent with the Fair Work Act.

It will also ensure that Commonwealth public sector organisations are also required to report to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency on its gender equality indicators. If you can't measure it, you can't see progress. As a government we want to make sure our departments are places where staff don't have to face sexual discrimination in any form. This addition will make sure each department gender equality indicator is scrutinised and can be used as a key driver for change.

Other changes the bill will make are in relation to a number of other amendments arising from changes made by the previous government's respect at work act 2021. This will provide greater consistency across the Commonwealth antidiscrimination framework and achieve the intended outcomes outlined in the Respect@Work report. Included in these changes is clarification that victimising conduct can form the basis of a civil action for unlawful discrimination under all Commonwealth antidiscrimination acts and not just the Sex Discrimination Act. This will ensure that a discrimination complaint can only be terminated for delay by the president of the commission if it is made more than 24 months after the alleged unlawful conduct took place.

The Attorney-General and his department have done an excellent job in terms of consulting with unions, business groups and a range of other interested organisations when drafting this bill. Included in discussions were the Respect@Work Council members including the Australian Human Rights Commission, the Fair Work Commission, the Fair Work Ombudsman, Safe Work Australia, workplace safety authorities, workers compensation authorities, the Australian Council of Human Rights Agencies, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia, the Kingsford Legal Centre, JobWatch and the Ai Group. Other organisations consulted included the Business Council of Australia; the Australian Institute of Company Directors; the CPSU; the SDA; Diversity Council Australia; the National Women's Safety Alliance; the national Working Women's Centres; Community Legal Centres Australia, who do incredible work; the Law Council of Australia; the Australian Women Lawyers; the Australian Discrimination Law Experts Group; the AFP; ASIO; and the Office of National Intelligence—to name but a few.

Lastly, I want to personally thank all victims-survivors who came forward to share their stories and to inform the Respect@Work report. I hope that this legislation is something you can be proud of, despite the circumstances leading up to you coming forward. I recommend this bill to the House.

Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the House for the opportunity to speak to the Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Bill 2022. The purpose of this legislation is to address sexual harassment in Australian workplaces by implementing the recommendations of the Respect@Worksexual harassmentnational inquiry report 2020, the Jenkins report. The Jenkins report found that workplace sexual harassment is prevalent and pervasive. It occurs in every industry, in every location and at every level in Australian workplaces. As Kate Jenkins herself has said, the right of workers to be free from sexual harassment is a human right, workplace right and a safety right. Hence, Ms Jenkins's recommendation that work related gendered violence and workplace sexual harassment be treated as an occupational health and safety issue.

I congratulate the government on its commitment to rapid and effective action on the recommendations of the Respect@Work report. However, there is an issue of particular concern. Recommendation 25 of the Respect@Work report clearly articulates the need to ensure that fear of an adverse court order does not create a barrier to victims-survivors of workplace sexual harassment seeking access to justice. In passing this important legislation, we have to make it easier for victims of workplace sexual harassment to speak out and to receive justice. We have to ensure that employers understand their responsibility to protect their workforce and the ramifications of not doing so. The risk of adverse court orders acts as a disincentive to applicants considering pursuing their sexual harassment matters in the federal courts. The Jenkins report noted that the current practice in which costs follow the event means that applicants may be liable for the costs of both parties if they are unsuccessful. This may deter applicants from initiating court proceedings and it can present an access to justice concern, especially for vulnerable members of the community.

The Respect@Work report proposed a model based on section 570 of the Fair Work Act providing that costs may only be ordered against a party if the court is satisfied that the party instituted the proceedings vexatiously or without cause, or if the court is satisfied that a party's unreasonable act or omission caused the other party to incur costs. That model has not been adopted by this bill. Instead, this bill proposes a cost neutrality approach. The proposed cost neutrality provision in this bill provides that, as a default position, each party bears their own costs in an unlawful discrimination proceeding. The courts do retain discretion to depart from this default position and to make cost orders where they consider it just. In considering whether to depart from the default position the courts have to have regard to a number of factors, including the financial circumstances of the parties to the proceedings and whether any party to the proceedings has been wholly unsuccessful.

We do need cost reforms to give both applicants and respondents greater certainty in terms of the costs that they could face, while not impacting their access to legal representation. People need to know what they're committing to before making important legal decisions. However, the model proposed by the government in this bill, this cost neutrality approach, will likely have an opposite effect to that intended.

Under this model, employers found to have breached the Sex Discrimination Act will not have to pay the legal costs of the victim-survivor. Even if a victim-survivor is successful in a claim, they will have to pay their own costs. If the victim-survivor is awarded compensation—we know that damages for sexual harassment cases are traditionally quite low—this compensation may be insufficient to cover their legal costs. So a victim-survivor shown to have been wrongfully treated in the workplace could end up out of pocket for seeking recognition of that fact. They could end up in a worse financial position than they were in before they brought the claim, especially if the defendant drags out proceedings, increasing costs beyond the means of the applicant. Defendants who want to punish and wear down a woman complainant can do so. They can drag the proceedings out in the knowledge that the woman's legal expenses will increase, that she will have to meet them herself and that those costs will end up chewing up all of her compensation or most of her compensation. This not only means an unfair reduction in the compensation outcome but will also increase the trauma of those proceedings for the applicant. We know this may well occur. After all, corporations can claim tax deductions for their legal costs while victims-survivors cannot. It's inappropriate. This is wrong and it needs to be changed.

The proposed cost neutrality approach could well limit the ability of applicants to secure legal representation, because it removes the certainties for solicitors and barristers that they will recoup their fees. Even if the matter is successful, it will render it more difficult for victims-survivors to secure representation. If they engage no win no fee or other private legal services, even if they're successful in their claim, they could still be required to bear their own legal costs under the cost neutrality approach.

Legal assistance services rarely take sexual harassment cases to hearings due to resource constraints. Applicants will often have to secure private solicitors or face pressure to settle the matter prior to hearings for amounts lower than they would otherwise be entitled to. This dynamic creates a significant disparity in justice between those who have access to the means to pay for private representation and those who do not. It creates a divide between the better off and those who are less well off, hardly what we want to achieve from this important piece of legislation. We need to remove, not add to, the financial barriers for victim-survivors from marginalised communities—migrant women, First Nations women and women from the LGBTQI community—seeking justice for acts of workplace harassment and discrimination. Less financially secure applicants may well end up depending on pro bono lawyers and barristers because otherwise they'll have to cover their own costs. While under the proposed legislation the Federal Court has the discretion to make cost orders, we know that without the certainty that this will occur applicants may well be unable to secure representation.

The cost-neutrality approach will not adequately reduce the financial uncertainty faced by applicants seeking to bring sexual harassment matters to court. The mechanism proposed in this bill provides, in effect, equal protection to perpetrators and victim-survivors in circumstances where there is a vast asymmetry of power and economic advantage. The cost-neutrality approach may well act as a barrier to accessing justice for victim-survivors of harassment and discrimination. Taking a cost-neutrality approach to a relationship—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 11 : 21 to 11 : 34

This cost-neutrality approach will not reduce adequately the financial uncertainty faced by applicants seeking to bring sexual harassment and sex discrimination matters to court. The mechanism proposed in the bill provides, in effect, equal protection to perpetrators and to victims-survivors in circumstances where there is a vast asymmetry of power and economic advantage. The cost-neutrality approach may act as a barrier to accessing justice for victims-survivors of harassment and discrimination. Taking a cost-neutrality approach to a relationship characterised by endemic inequality only serves to entrench that inequality.

The amendment I'm proposing to this bill offers an alternative: an equal-access approach. Under this proposal, respondents would be precluded from recovering costs against an unsuccessful claimant. Each party would bear their own costs, except where an applicant was successful—that is, where the court had found that the respondent had engaged in discriminatory conduct in breach of the Sex Discrimination Act—in which case the respondent would be liable to pay the applicant's court costs, as they should be. You should not be excused from costs when you have broken the law. People and organisations found to have engaged in sexual discrimination or harassment in breach of the law should have to pay the costs of the applicant. This will act as an incentive to change workplace cultures that permit discriminatory treatment.

This proposal will mean that victims-survivors in sexual discrimination matters can take meritorious cases to court with the confidence that, even if their case is unsuccessful, they won't be subject to an adverse cost order. The approach will ensure that victims-survivors can continue to secure solicitors and counsel willing to act on a no-win no-fee basis, as their legal team will be confident of recouping their costs if the case is successful.

Corporate respondents will be no worse off under this reform, as they're already able to claim legal costs as tax deductions. Yes, individual respondents would now be potentially liable for their own costs, even if they were successful, but it's worth noting that, in the nine years of Sex Discrimination Act cases in the Federal Court of Australia, between 2012 and 2021, most cases were brought against a corporate or government entity. Only 10 per cent of cases—seven cases in total—were brought against an individual. If this proposed reform were already in place, it would have amounted to no practical change in any cost orders made in favour of the successful respondents over the last nine years.

There are domestic and international precedents for the use of the equal-access model. An equal-access model has already been adopted domestically for whistleblowers under the Corporations Act 2001 and the Treasury Laws Amendment (Enhancing Whistleblower Protections) Act 2019. That provision requires that, where a claimant applies to the court for compensation for detrimental treatment as a result of whistleblowing activities, that claimant must not be ordered to pay the costs of another party unless the claimant has instituted those proceedings vexatiously. It doesn't exclude the respondent's ability or liability to pay the claimant's costs; that remains a matter for the court's discretion.

In introducing this change to the usual cost rule, parliament recognised:

Legal costs can be prohibitive to any person seeking compensation for damage, and the risk of being ordered to pay the costs of other parties to the proceedings may deter whistleblowers and other victims of victimisation from bringing the matter to court.

Legal costs can be prohibitive to any person seeking compensation for damage in sexual harassment cases, just as much as for whistleblowers.

South Africa uses this model. The UK has used this model. The US Supreme Court has long held that, in relation to employment discrimination claims, successful plaintiffs should be awarded costs and only subjected to adverse costs where their actions were frivolous, unreasonable or without foundation. It gives perfect sense to give those who expose sexually hostile and unsafe workplaces the same legal standing as whistleblowers. They deserve the same protections without constraints on their achievement of just outcomes.

The reform I propose will increase access to justice. People who've experienced sexual harassment and sex discrimination will be able to take their cases to court. Discriminatory behaviour will be appropriately penalised. There will be an important flow-on impact on workplace culture. Victims-survivors with meritorious claims will have more options to secure legal representation, because they'll know that if they're successful in their claim there is a guarantee that their lawyer's or barrister's costs will be paid by the other party. This model creates more equitable access to the courts by reducing financial barriers for victim-survivors from marginalised communities—migrant women, First Nations women and women from the LGBTQI community.

Each of the seven recommendations being implemented through this bill is important. All of them are long overdue. When combined, they will fundamentally change how safety, acceptance and respect are perceived in our workplaces and who is responsible for ensuring their presence and their value. I urge the government, though, to amend section 46 of this bill to protect victim-survivors, to support their right to representation and to remove the disincentive to pursuing sexual harassment matters in Federal Court.

Libby Coker (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

COKER () (): The Albanese government has committed to implementing all 55 recommendations of the 2020 Respect@Work: sexual harassment national inquiry report as a matter of priority. This bill is the most significant step in fulfilling that commitment. The bill implements all but one of the remaining legislative recommendations from Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins' groundbreaking Respect@Work report. The one remaining recommendation is being progressed separately by the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations.

Once again I find myself standing here in this place, proudly speaking to a significant piece of reform legislation from the Albanese government. We are taking it forward, unlike the previous Morrison government, which ducked its responsibility. The Morrison government's response to this report was not only slow; it only happened following significant public pressure. It was half hearted, and, ultimately, it failed to act. The Respect@Work report is the most significant of its kind, yet the Morrison government failed to give it the respect it deserved. The Morrison government used weasel words such as 'agreed in part', 'agreed in principle' or 'noted' in response to the report's recommendations. By contrast, the Albanese Labor government is fully implementing all recommendations of the report and helping to assure Australians are safe from discrimination and harassment at work.

As the mother of two young women and as someone who has fought hard for this legislation, I am so proud that I am standing here today. Chief amongst the reforms that the bill introduces is a positive duty on employers to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate workplace sexual harassment, victimisation and sex discrimination. It also gives the Australian Human Rights Commissioner the power to enforce that duty.

The cultural shift embedded within this bill, towards governments and employers shouldering most of the burden that individuals have suffered in the workplace, is a no-brainer. Employers now have to consider sexual harassment in the workplace as both an employment and discrimination issue and a workplace health and safety issue. The Respect@Work report was an absolute watershed moment in acknowledging the impact of sexual harassment in Australian workplaces and is setting out a clear path for reform. I applaud the work of the Sex Discrimination Commissioner and of the commission more generally in producing the Respect@Work report.

The commission received 460 submissions from government agencies, business groups, community bodies and, above all, victims. From September 2018 to February 2019, the commission conducted 60 consultations as part of the inquiry, with more than 600 individuals participating in all capital cities and some regional locations across Australia. The Respect@Work report is a solidly based document. I know that Commissioner Jenkins and the commission have done significant work since the report was published to implement its recommendations, including through the Respect@Work Council.

In the report, Commissioner Jenkins described sexual harassment as endemic in Australia. The report drew on 2018 survey data that found 33 per cent of people who had been in the workforce in the previous five years reported experiences of sexual harassment—39 per cent of women and 26 per cent of men. That is something we should not accept. The report highlighted that those who are most at risk are those who experience other forms of vulnerability and disadvantage. It especially mentioned Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, disabled people, LGBTQI+ people and people from ethnic, religious and racial minority groups. That is also something we should not accept. These groups are more likely to experience 'intersecting' forms of discrimination where sexual harassment reinforces a disproportionate 'burden' that also contributes to making harassment and violence harder to report. Those who experience harassment, discrimination and violence also carry the financial, career and health costs of that oppression, often without meaningful support or intervention tailored to their needs and circumstances.

Gender inequality is a key driver of sexual harassment in the workplace, which is borne out by the disproportionate impact this behaviour has on women. The Respect@Work report's recommendations proposed a whole new approach spanning government, employers and the community. The aim is to better prevent and respond to sexual harassment in the workplace and provide leadership and innovation in addressing this complex and difficult issue. Commissioner Jenkins said:

The right of workers to be free from sexual harassment is a human right, a workplace right and a safety right. This legislative reform will create a regulatory environment in Australia that is key to the realisation of that right for all Australian workers.

It must be said that this bill would not have happened without the individuals and organisations that contributed their stories, their advocacy and their expertise to inform the Respect@Work report. I commend all those organisations, but especially those brave people who told their stories.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 11:46 to 11:57

This bill would not have happened without the individuals and organisations who contributed their stories, their advocacy and their expertise to inform the Respect@Work report. I commend those organisations and especially the brave people who told their stories and shared their personal experiences. The report's recommendations apply across federal, state and territory governments, independent government agencies, the private sector and the community more broadly. All are driven by the same purpose: to put an end to sexual harassment and make Australian workplaces safe for all.

The broad objectives of this legislation have been welcomed across sectors. In preparing this bill there was extensive consultation, including with the Australian Human Rights Commission, the Fair Work Commission, the Fair Work Ombudsman, Safe Work Australia and the Heads of Workplace Safety Authorities. I also include in this group the Australian Council of Trade Unions and employer groups, such as the Australian Chamber of Commerce and the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia, along with human rights and advocacy organisations, community legal centres, legal practitioners and academics. They all had something important to say, and we have acknowledged that.

The government are moving decisively to implement the outstanding legislation recommendations because we know that these changes will have an immediate and lasting impact and they will save lives. They will see new cultural norms and preventative efforts and are essential in eliminating workplace sexual harassment, discrimination and victimisation, which often lead to women feeling left behind and isolated.

This suite of reforms is critical to ensuring safer, respectful and more equitable workplaces for all Australians. The bill significantly strengthens and clarifies the legal and regulative frameworks around sexual harassment in Australia. In addition to introducing a positive duty by the employer, the bill provides the commission with the power to assess and enforce compliance.

The bill inserts a new provision in the Sex Discrimination Act to prohibit conduct that subjects another person to a workplace environment that is 'hostile on the ground of sex', responding to a specific recommendation of the Respect@Work report. The report found that sexual harassment may occur where a workplace environment is sexually charged or hostile, even if the specific conduct is not directed at a particular person—conduct such as displaying obscene or pornographic materials, general sexual banter, innuendo or offensive jokes. These are things I have experienced in my own workplace history. Hopefully, these things will now no longer occur. All of these can result in people of one sex feeling unwelcome or excluded by the general environment. The existence of these environments can increase the risk of people experiencing other forms of unlawful discrimination, such as sexual harassment.

In light of this legislation, employers who are not already doing so should be reflecting on their workplace's culture and the behaviour of employees and senior leaders. We expect that. We expect that now of our senior leaders and our employers.

Open forms of sexual harassment are easily identifiable, but most subtle sexual harassment, such as crude language or sexist remarks, often goes unnoticed. The Sex Discrimination Commissioner in the Respect@Work report called on all employers to join her in creating safe, gender-equal and inclusive workplaces, no matter their industry or size. She told them that this required transparency, accountability and leadership. It would also require a shift from the current reactive model to one that requires positive action from employers. She reminded employers that ultimately a safe, harassment-free workplace is also a productive workplace.

Now is the time for all employers—government and private entities—to assess whether there is any aspect of their current culture that needs to change. Training and educating workers is an important tool to preventing sexual harassment. That means training workers at all levels of an organisation and in a form that all workers can understand.

Following the passing of this bill—hopefully—employers can anticipate receiving guidelines from the Australian Human Rights Commission which will assist them to comply with the proposed new positive duty requirements. Responsibility for implementing the Respect@Work report is shared between many, including the Australian government, independent government agencies, state and territory governments and the private sector.

The previous Morrison government failed to act. It's now up to members of this parliament to use their voice to stand up for women, for those who are being harassed in the workplace and for others who have been subjected to discrimination and to say that enough is enough. This is a groundbreaking bill. It leads on from this morning—today is a great day in the chamber—when we introduced the secure jobs, better pay legislation, which will also go further to closing the gender pay gap and to making sure that all people are treated equally and have equal opportunity in the workplace to earn an income and feel safe and secure in the workplace.

In delivering on the Albanese government's commitment to implement all the recommendations of the Respect@Work report we are doing groundbreaking work that is going to have long-term implications. I'm very proud to be part of a government that is doing so. I do hope to be celebrating the successful passing of this legislation with the women of my electorate and across our nation very soon.

Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I speak in support of the Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Bill 2022. The shocking revelations of the Respect@Work report were deeply alarming to so many Australians. It reflected toxic cultures and systemic failures that have persisted for far too long in Australian workplaces. It's time that this is resolved. I welcome this bill and its endeavours to implement meaningful change.

I previously spoke on the impacts of unacceptable delays when the former government finally began implementing the recommendations of the Respect@Work report during the last parliament. The previous legislation was a good step but it failed to legislate enough of the report's recommendations. It's so important that this parliament adequately address sexual harassment in the workplace and legislate the remaining recommendations.

I again wish to thank all of those people who came forward to share their experiences and insights with the Australian Human Rights Commission. This would not have been an easy thing to do. They should never have had to endure the harassment they faced. Their courage in coming forward is making a profound difference. I'd also like to thank the commissioner, Kate Jenkins, and her staff.

This is our opportunity to help extinguish predatory cultures in the workplace and protect Australian workers from sexual harassment and assault. Upon reviewing this legislation, it was clear to me that this bill seeks to implement improvements that are more consistent with the rights that Australians are entitled to in their workplaces: the right to equality and nondiscrimination, the right to freedom of expression, the right to privacy and reputation, the right to the highest attainable standards of physical and mental health, and the right to work. Sexual harassment and lack of enforced accountability threaten all of these rights for Australian workers. That's why we need this change.

This bill addresses the significant issues raised in the Respect@Work report, the release of which corresponded with such high-profile instances and allegations of sexual harassment and assault in the workplace, including in this very building. They were incredibly shocking and led to the March4Justice and a real mobilisation around saying: 'Enough! Things need to change.' The bill implements a positive duty, which puts the onus on employers to ensure they are fostering safe and inclusive workplaces. However, we need to ensure the legal and regulatory framework is clear and considered. Employees in Australia are diverse, and therefore employers should be able to access clear guidance to best practice. I would ask the government to ensure that the new framework proposed in this bill is widely publicised so that every employer can be on the same page with these important changes. There is heightened cultural focus and there is justifiable public pressure to implement improvements, and it is our job, as elected representatives, to set the best example and take the lead in securing this vital change.

The key impacts of this legislation across the proposed eight schedules—and I'm pleased to see some of these positive recommendations—include the prohibition of conduct that subjects a person to a hostile workplace environment on the grounds of sex; the introduction of a positive duty on employers to eliminate unlawful discrimination, including sexual harassment; allowing the Australian Human Rights Commission to conduct inquiries into systemic unlawful discrimination or suspected unlawful discrimination; and extending the period of time between the alleged incident and the lodging of a complaint.

When I spoke to the Sex Discrimination and Fair Work (Respect at Work) Amendment Bill 2021 in the last parliament, I pushed the former government on their hesitation to implement more of the recommendations from the report, so I'm pleased to see this government, in this bill, pick up what was left out of the previous government's legislation. This bill goes further and is a far stronger approach to tackling this pressing issue.

Many are wondering about the employer's responsibility and positive duty. One of the key changes in this bill, and probably one of the most contentious, is the introduction of a positive duty on employers to ensure workplaces are safe and free from sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is not a women's issue; it is a societal issue. Workplace harassment is not inevitable; it is preventable. This needs to be a collective effort between employers, employees, customers and clients to ensure everyone is being protected from sexual harassment. It is through the fostering of accountability measures and steps to educate each other that this long-persistent problem can finally start to be resolved. I'm pleased to see the inclusion of schedule 2, which pertains to positive duty as a legal and regulatory framework for an employer's responsibility for keeping their staff safe from harassment.

This issue is not confined only to instances of harassment between colleagues. Employees, especially those who work in industries where alcohol is served, need to feel safe in their roles with customers as well. Hospitality venues in my electorate generally have a high turnover of young staff who are earning money doing night shifts while finding their feet in young adulthood. My office has heard instances of young workers being harassed by intoxicated patrons, sometimes on a regular basis by the same offenders. Ask-to-leave actions or temporary bans from venues do not solve the root of the problem.

I fear there's also an existing perspective that, if a patron is a reliable contributor to the fiscal intake of a business, their behaviour may be dismissed with words like 'he doesn't mean any harm' or 'he's just from another time'. That misogynistic behaviour that allows this conduct to occur is not acceptable, and it needs to be adequately reprimanded. The safety and wellbeing of staff must be prioritised by employers. Employers need to be held accountable for how they deal with harassment claims. These claims must always be taken seriously and investigated properly, with meaningful actions taken to prevent them from happening again. This is the positive duty that is outlined in this bill, and failure to act accordingly would see employers held accountable.

I know there is always that incredible tension in the fears of an employee complaining of a situation—the fear of how that will impact their employment status, especially when the complaint might have serious implications for where they work. It's so incredibly important that the legislative framework be established to ensure there is a strong protective environment in which complaints can be brought forward. The right to a safe and secure workplace really is something that should go with employees' rights.

It's so important in particular where workers experience sexual harassment that they're supported by their employer. The phrases 'they don't mean any harm' and 'they're just from another time' are just not good enough. We simply cannot allow sexual harassment conduct to continue or to occur. The excuses are what have maintained this behaviour in the workplace for far too long. It is no excuse to be of another generation or not understand the complications or what is wrong with this behaviour. Harassment can have significant impacts on a person's health and wellbeing, and mental health aftercare may be needed to work through some of these impacts. When I attended the March4Justice in the last parliament on the grounds in front of parliament, it was quite amazing walking through the crowd of so many women of all ages, all cultural and ethnic backgrounds, sharing their stories and talking of events and incidents that had occurred to them, realising just how common it was and just how much there was a need for change.

I note that the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation has raised concerns with the lack of definition of what constitutes positive-duty guidelines and their lack of enforceability and oversight. The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation made a submission to the Senate committee inquiry into the bill, and their submission states:

Section 35A of the Bill provides the Commission with functions in relation to the positive duty. Those duties include the preparation and publishing of guidelines for complying with the positive duty, however the guidelines themselves are not enforceable.

The ANMF considers that unless these guidelines are enforceable, there will be uncertainty in relation to what constitutes compliance with the positive duty.

With a legal background and knowing the litigation process in our courts, I urge the government to take on board that submission and ensure the positive-duty guidelines are clear for employers. This is an incredibly important framework and a key component to tackling this issue. It's vitally important that there is clarity in what is expected of employers. We cannot afford uncertainty and confusion. We need to ensure it is done properly.

One of the key concerns and one that will be the focus of a number of amendments in the consideration in detail stage is the allocation of costs. The cost-neutrality approach, as outlined in this bill, will implement a default position whereby each party will be responsible for covering their own legal costs should a workplace harassment claim be brought before the courts. We know cost is often a serious hurdle to employees bringing forward a complaint, so I do welcome the changes the bill provides in relation to the allocation of cost. I note, though, that there is capacity for special costs orders to be made in the event of conduct by a defendant, for example, to unnecessarily extend or have onerous interim applications within proceedings and cause a complainant to incur unnecessary costs.

I know some groups are concerned that this remains a barrier to justice for plaintiffs who simply don't have the resources to fund legal representation and hence are severely disadvantaged in proceedings or mediation, especially against larger businesses or corporations with vastly greater legal resources. I'd like to urge the government to look into this issue, especially when it may be a question of making legal aid available in the way it is in the family law system.

While I support this idea that each party bears its own costs—I am very familiar with it from a family law point of view—I am not in support of some of the amendments being proposed, and I would urge the government to look at this issue. We have to have a system where people have access to justice and cost is not a barrier to being able to bring forward an action for harassment in the workplace. I support the approach outlined in the bill, which provides for 'own costs'—where each party bears their own costs—but gives the judge discretion to overturn own-cost rulings in the event of vexatious claims, similar to what is provided for in the family law system. I believe that will lead to a reasonable balance and improve the situation at the moment.

I would ask the government to consider an amendment that I am intending to move around inclusive language. This is a strong bill. However, I believe an even more holistic approach is needed in schedule 8 to ensure improvements are equitable throughout the national workforce. I believe that the language currently in place in the Sex Discrimination Act allows employers to make room for instances of exclusion.

Our workplaces, especially with the younger generations coming through, are diverse and dynamic. LGBTQI+ Australians often have their experiences regarding sexual harassment under-reported. Gender association is changing, and we have to recognise that young people don't want to be defined by gender norms. But this legislation is worded in the old-school way; it is still stuck in the past. Schedule 8 seeks to change the wording to 'substantive equality' for men and women. I believe it is an objective of the Sex Discrimination Act to achieve substantive equality for everyone, irrespective of gender or sexual orientation, rather than simply for 'men and women', as it is currently written. Modern legislation should reflect modern Australia. I will therefore be putting forward a motion to amend this wording to ensure our diverse workforce is protected equally in this bill and that all generations see themselves and recognise themselves in the bill and the language the government is using.

I'm pleased to see the inclusion of the seven important recommendations of the Respect@Work report in this bill and I commend the government for putting this on their agenda so early in the term. Sexual harassment is not a women's issue; it is a societal issue. Workplace harassment is not inevitable. Every Australian has the right to feel safe from harassment in their workplace. I urge the government to think about the language being used: reflect modern Australia and use inclusive language. Sexual harassment and assault can have severe and lasting impacts on a person's self-worth and emotional health. I look forward to the implementation of this bill and the eradication of harassment and discrimination based on sex in Australia's workplaces. I commend this bill to the House.

Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Bill 2022 will make a big difference in the lives of many Australians because everyone deserves to feel safe and be safe in their workplace. Regardless of where you are, the type of work you do, who you work with or how often you work, you should have the reassurance and the certainty that you are safe from harassment and other forms of behaviour that just have no place in our workplaces.

This is not currently the case, and we hear of far too many instances of sexual harassment in our workplaces. It's an issue that too many Australians come up against during their working lives, and we've waited a long time for this legislation. As someone who in the last parliament advocated for the previous government to get on and implement the recommendations of the Respect@Work report, I am so pleased to be standing here today as this government gets on with doing that work.

The Respect@Work report, which was delivered by Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins in March 2020, found that 33 per cent of people who'd been in the workforce in the preceding five-year period had experienced workplace sexual harassment. They're terrible statistics—that's four in 10 working women, and one in four working men. The statistics show that gender inequality is a significant factor in many instances of sexual harassment in the workplace. This fact is borne out by figures showing that women are much more likely to experience sexual harassment in their place of work compared to men.

So many women have stories—they've shared them with me—of feeling disempowered and feeling unsure about how they can take forward a complaint about inappropriate behaviour that they just should not have faced in their workplace. We know that the current laws have not been up to dealing with this, and this bill goes to addressing that issue. Those women should not be confused. They should not feel like there's nowhere for them to go. They should not feel like it's too hard to prove that something happened. It shouldn't be brushed off by saying, 'That bloke didn't quite get it; he's a little bit oldschool.' None of these things are appropriate. None of them are acceptable. Everyone should be safe in their workplace.

An important part of this bill is recognising what isn't working now. The Respect@Work report found that the existing frameworks relating to workplace sexual harassment are complex, difficult to navigate, focus on reacting rather than preventing, and place too much of a burden on the individual experiencing the harassment to make a complaint. It shouldn't be up to the victim to do all the work here to get the outcome that they need and deserve.

Ending sexual harassment at work is our goal, and this is achievable. This bill is a big step forward and will make a difference to the lives of many working Australians. It was ignored for far too long by the previous government. I think one of the reasons why so many women around Australia felt let down by the previous government was that they didn't adequately respond to this report. In fact, it sat on a shelf for years until it got looked at a bit but not enough.

Again, I say to all the women who have shared with me their stories of having to put up with this type of behaviour, of feeling like there is nowhere for them to go because the paths open to them aren't going to actually deal with this sort of behaviour: this bill is for you, and it will make a difference. The government does have a role to play in making workplaces safe. We can set the direction, and we can help improve the practices of workplaces that might be falling short.

It's also appropriate to acknowledge here that the workplaces we as parliamentarians work in and operate have also fallen short far too many times. Through another body of work from Kate Jenkins, the Set the standard report, we know that that has absolutely been the case in this building. We also know that we're on the way to raising the standard of behaviour and improving the structures that govern our parliamentary workplaces. As we do this work in the broader community, we also must not forget that there is a lot of work for us to do in this place and across all the places that we as parliamentarians work in. We mustn't take that work for granted. It's something that all of us have to be involved in and dedicated to.

This bill implements seven changes recommended by Kate Jenkins to achieve our goal of ending sexual harassment in the workplace. The biggest change, and the one that I think will make the most difference in people's lives, is that there will now be a positive duty on employers to take reasonable measures to eliminate sex discrimination, sexual harassment and victimisation as much as possible. While there's a role for everyone to play in making workplaces safe, we're saying with this bill that there's a responsibility on employers to be setting the standard. They are generally the people best placed to be preventing discrimination and harassment within a workforce. This bill places this principle front and centre. It will ensure that employers are proactive in making their workplace a safe environment and will hopefully help to avoid the conditions that create a toxic workplace by not putting the onus on the employee to think: 'Do I have a pathway to report this? What might I have been doing wrong? Did I just respond to that person in the wrong way?' It's not on the employee. It is a responsibility of the employer to make sure that the workplace is free of sexual harassment. This bill recognises that merely looking for remedies for misconduct will not deliver the changes we need to see in workplaces. It is accepted practice that employers have responsibilities to their employees, particularly on issues like workplace health and safety. What we're doing with this bill is complementing those well-established practices, particularly the idea that employers are required to ensure that their employees' physical and psychological health and safety are maintained.

This bill will also strengthen the arm of the Australian Human Rights Commission and provide it with new functions to assess and enforce compliance with the new positive duty on employers. The commission will have the ability to give compliance notices to employers that are found not to be meeting their obligations to their employees. This will assist employers in making sure they are taking the steps they must to make their workplaces safer. Safe workplaces are actually good for all of us. They're good for workers, they're good for bosses and they're good for all of us who use the services or goods of that workplace. They are a win-win-win for our entire community.

The Respect@Work report noted, amongst other issues, that hostile workplace environments increase the risk of someone experiencing unlawful discrimination, including sexual harassment. The bill will change part of the Sex Discrimination Act to prohibit conduct that results in an offensive, intimidating and humiliating environment for people of one sex.

The act will also be amended to state that one of its aims is to achieve substantive equality between men and women. Concerns raised during the consultation on Commissioner Jenkins's report included the uncertainty that applicants face when seeking to resolve their complaints through the courts. So, through this bill, the government will deliver a costs-protection provision, reflecting one of the report's recommendations and helping to give greater certainty to parties about the costs they may face if they are heading towards legal action.

We also know that giving light to what's happening in workplaces will help to make a difference. That's why this bill will require the Commonwealth public sector to report against six gender equality indicators, contributing to what will become a growing body of data that will help to improve our understanding of gender inequality in workplaces.

I do want to take this opportunity to thank the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins, and acknowledge her work both with the Respect@Work report and with the report that she did for this parliament. They are both incredibly important pieces of work that really are helping us get to a different place in this country—helping us make sure that our workplaces are the types of workplaces that everyone would want to work in and can feel safe working in. Again, I pay tribute to the effort and thought that she has brought into these important reforms.

I also want to acknowledge the input and advocacy, over many, many years, from individuals and organisations who've kept up the pressure and the attention on these issues. I know that their contribution has been reflected first in the commissioner's report and in the findings and the recommendations, and it has now been reflected in everything that has come since, including in this bill.

Sexual harassment can be devastating for those people who experience it. It is something that we know can occur in any industry and any profession, but it just should not occur. That it continues to be a pervasive issue in workplaces demonstrates the need for those of us who are here as lawmakers to rethink all of these things—to look at how these laws are working more effectively to help stop sexual harassment in workplaces. This bill represents part of the shift we need to make, and it follows the leadership of the Respect@Work report. This bill tells workers across Australia that they deserve to be safe at work. It tells workers across a workplace that sexual harassment should not be put up with or ignored. It is preventable, and we can make a change for the better that helps to put it to an end.

This bill is a really important step forward. With its passage through the parliament, soon we will finally have implemented the recommendations of the Respect@Work report in full—alongside, of course, the bill introduced by Minister Burke this morning in the House. That bill, again, goes to some important issues around addressing gender inequality in our workplaces. It's such important work that this parliament and this government are getting on with doing. This bill demonstrates that our government is delivering the changes that people voted for. We are delivering on the promise we made to Australian women that their voices would be heard in this place and that the changes needed in our workplaces, in our homes and across our country would be acted on. I'm very proud that this government has brought this bill forward and I commend it to the House.

Zoe Daniel (Goldstein, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to speak on this bill, the Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Bill 2022, the direct consequence of the Respect@Work report and the behaviour that led to it. Safe and respectful workplaces aren't just a moral issue. Having a safe and respectful workplace is fundamental to increasing women's participation in the labour force, their career progression and fulfilment and their future economic security. Having a safe and respectful workplace is as much an economic imperative as it is a moral and a social one.

The statistics around sexual harassment paint a depressing picture. It's a pervasive issue in Australian workplaces that affects people across all industries, at all levels and in all locations, from Goldstein to Brisbane, Perth and Hobart. Some encouraging news is that it's now being talked about seriously, given more than lip service, and it's starting to be seen as a serious problem that needs addressing with more legislative clout.

In March 2020, the Australian Human Rights Commission released the Respect@Work report. It found that sexual harassment is a common experience. In 2018, one in three Australian workers had experienced workplace sexual harassment in the last five years, up from one in five in 2012. The current system places the onus on the victim to complain, yet only 17 per cent of the people who reported being sexually harassed at work in the commission's national survey made a complaint. Sexual harassment happens in all workplaces, including rural, regional and metropolitan settings, as well as small, medium and large workplaces. Workplace sexual harassment has a high cost. As well as having a devastating and profound impact on individuals, Deloitte Access Economics estimated that workplace sexual harassment cost the Australian economy $3.8 billion in 2018.

The Respect@Work report concluded that the existing frameworks are complex, difficult to navigate and overly reactive, rather than focused on prevention, and place a significant burden on individuals who experience harassment to make a complaint. The report recommended several legislative amendments to strengthen and clarify the legal and regulatory frameworks relating to sexual harassment and made 55 recommendations. This bill would implement seven of them.

The cornerstone reform is the introduction of a positive duty in the Sex Discrimination Act that would require employers to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate sex discrimination, including sexual harassment and victimisation. The bill also expands the role of the commission by providing it with new powers to monitor and enforce compliance with the positive duty, including the ability to give compliance notices. The introduction of a positive duty and the ability of the commission to enforce that duty is a significant move. It's a turning-point moment that should finally start to shift the burden of sexual harassment from individuals to employers.

Under the current complaints based legislative framework, the onus is on people who experience the harassment to make the complaint. But, as the 17 per cent figure tells you, most people choose not to lodge a complaint because they fear the impact that complaining will have on their reputation, career prospects and relationships within their community or industry. Given that significant numbers of sexual harassment incidents go unreported and are therefore not investigated, requiring employers to proactively identify and take action to eliminate harassment at work is a critical first step in making workplaces safer for everyone. A positive duty will be a powerful tool in promoting broad systemic and cultural change around sex discrimination and sexual and sex based harassment in the workplace. It will incentivise employers to address the systemic drivers of harassment and help prevent it occurring in the first place.

However, as the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins, noted in her opening statement to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee inquiry into the bill on 15 October this year:

… the legislative response to Respect@Work will also create some inconsistencies in coverage both within the Sex Discrimination Act and across the federal discrimination laws. The introduction of a positive duty in the Sex Discrimination Act is an excellent reform and may be seen as a pilot for the other acts.

Let's talk about that. Everyone deserves respect at work. While there is much to commend, the scope of this bill does not extend the same protections to everyone who is protected under federal discrimination law or even everyone who is protected under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984.

LGBTQIA+ people, among others, are being left out of the protections offered by this bill. In its submission to the Senate inquiry, Equality Australia argued that the positive duty to eliminate discrimination should apply to all protected attributes under the Sex Discrimination Act, including sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status. This would ensure consistency and coherence in federal discrimination law and ensure that all protections in the Sex Discrimination Act apply equally to people regardless of their gender, sexual orientation or sex characteristics.

A 2021 survey by Women of Colour Australia illustrates the systemic barriers and structural inequities women of colour face. A total of 543 women of colour completed the survey, with 60 per cent saying they face ongoing discrimination in their workplace. Respondents also identified that the most pressing issues facing women of colour in Australian workplaces are the combination of racism, sexism and organisations engaging in tokenism, rather than real and meaningful action. Therefore, for any national workplace reform that aims to tackle sex discrimination and harassment to be successful it must be underpinned by an intersectional approach that addresses multiple intersecting systems of oppression and discrimination.

There are also other areas of federal discrimination laws that require pressing attention and reform. In its paper 'Free & equal: a reform agenda for federal discrimination laws,' in December 2021, the commission notes:

… Australia was a world leader on discrimination protections when the Racial Discrimination Act (Cth) was introduced in 1975… The Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) and Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) were also considered international best practice at the time they were introduced.

However, what was best practice in the second half of the 20th century is not so in the 21st century. Australia has fallen behind other comparable jurisdictions in the protection against discrimination and the transformation that has occurred in those jurisdictions in advancing equality.

For this reason, the commission says that Australia's discrimination laws 'are now in urgent need of renewal'.

The introduction of a positive duty into the Sex Discrimination Act is an excellent reform that places the onus firmly on employers to get their house in order. No-one should feel unsafe or uncomfortable in their place of work. This shouldn't stop with the Sex Discrimination Act. This should be a springboard for further change. There is a place for a positive duty to eliminate discrimination in all federal discrimination laws: the Racial Discrimination Act 1975, the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Age Discrimination Act 2004.

The people of Goldstein support equality. I urge the government to undertake a comprehensive review of its federal discrimination laws as a matter of priority.

Alison Byrnes (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

All Australians have the right to feel safe at work, to feel safe from the threat of injury or death, to feel safe from physical or psychological intimidation and to feel safe from sexual harassment. The Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Bill 2022 brings us closer to eliminating sexual harassment in the workplace.

Sexual harassment is an increasing blight on Australian workplaces. According to a 2018 national survey conducted by the Australian Human Rights Commission one in three people had experienced workplace sexual harassment in the preceding five years. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders people, people with a disability and the LGBTIQ community this number is higher. And for women more broadly 39 per cent had experienced sexual harassment in their workplace. This represents a definite increase from previous national surveys. In 2003, just 11 per cent of people had experienced workplace sexual harassment. The Respect@Work report, overseen by Kate Jenkins, detailed the significant amount of work that needs to be done to make our workplaces safer, particularly for women. The report highlights how Australia has fallen behind when it comes to preventing and responding to workplace sexual harassment, and provides recommendations on what can be done to fix this. The Albanese Labor government made a commitment to fully implement the recommendations of the Respect@Work report. This is something the previous government failed to do, so now it is up to our government to finish the job and help protect Australians from workplace sexual harassment.

This bill implements the remaining legislative recommendations from the Respect@Work report, with the exception of recommendation 28. Recommendation 28, which calls for a review into the fair work system to define and expressly prohibit sexual harassment, will be progressed separately by the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. The reforms included in this bill are another example of this government fulfilling its election promises. They are vital to helping stamp out workplace sexual harassment and to making our workplaces more respectful and equitable for all Australians.

The changes greatly strengthen and clarify our legal frameworks relating to sexual harassment. The amendments cover the Sex Discrimination Act 1984, the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986, the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012, The Disability Discrimination Act 1992, the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 and the Age Discrimination Act 2004. They implement seven of the remaining Respect@Work report recommendations, with our government allocating $10.5 million in our budget for their implementation.

We are also implementing recommendation 17, which called for an amendment to the Sex Discrimination Act to introduce positive duty on all employers to implement reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate sex discrimination, sexual and sex based harassment, hostile work environments and victimisation. To assist with this, we have committed via $5.8 million in our first budget for the Human Rights Commission to educate employers on this new duty, and $2.6 million has been allocated to facilitate a process for disclosing historic sexual harassment incidences. This will support victims-survivors and identify improvements to be made. A further $2.1 million has been provided to ensure that the commission is the central point of contact for workplace rights information and provides a coordinated referral service.

We are implementing recommendation 18, which advised that the Australian Human Rights Commission be given the function of assessing compliance with the employer's positive duty and enforcement. We are replacing language in the respect at work act of 2021. This will ensure that an object of the act is to achieve substantive equality between men and women. This was listed as recommendation 16 (a). We are broadening the provisions relating to sex based harassment in the Sex Discrimination Act to ensure that conduct of a demeaning nature is covered, not just conduct of a seriously demeaning nature. We are also amending the Sex Discrimination Act to specifically prohibit conduct that contributes to a hostile working environment on the basis of sex. We are strengthening the Australian Human Rights Commission to have the capacity to inquire into systemic unlawful discrimination. We are removing barriers that inhibit representative bodies from continuing representative complaints in the Federal Court. The bill also inserts a cost protection provision in the Australian Human Rights Commission Act. This will provide greater cost certainty to parties during court proceedings. And we are ensuring that the Commonwealth public sector is also required to report to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency on gender equality.

With the respect at work bill, our government is making workplaces safer for all Australians. We are taking action to prevent workplace sexual harassment. The Respect@Work report provides great insight into the face of workplace sexual harassment in Australia. The majority of employment related sexual harassment complaints are made by women. In 2017- 2018, 68 per cent of complaints received by the Australian Human Rights Commission were from women. The Respect@Work report also provided immense details on the contributing factors to workplace sexual harassment.

We also know that disparities in power are vital to our understanding of the causes of sexual harassment. This is reflected in the testimony of those who have been victims of sexual harassment. Many reported that the defining feature of the harassment was a lack of power compared to the harasser, and gender continues to be the primary power imbalance affecting sexual harassment. This can be compounded by other power imbalances, including racial differences, disability, sexual orientation, visa status and economic vulnerabilities. We also know that workplace culture and social norms are an important contributing factor.

To ensure victims have a voice, it is important to ensure that there is trust in complaints processes and a genuine perception of freedom from repercussions. Victims need to feel safe in reporting their harassment and also need the confidence that the issue will be addressed appropriately. The changes we are introducing today reflect the reality that it is everyone's responsibility to work towards eliminating workplace sexual harassment. For young people, the threat is heightened, particularly for young women, who have the combined vulnerabilities of inexperience, age, gender and unequal employment. This is made worse by higher rates of casual work and a lack of understanding of workplace rights. It is so important, particularly for young people and migrant workers, that their workplace rights are communicated and respected.

The union movement has always been there for workers, to educate and support them and to help minimise power imbalances. I know that because I have spent much of my working life here in this building as a staff representative and I have been a lead delegate for the United Services Union. I have supported many staff members who have experienced discrimination and/or fallen victim to power imbalances here in our workplace.

In my local community in the Illawarra, the number of young people of working age is higher than both the New South Wales and the national average, and this can leave them vulnerable to workplace harassment, sexual harassment and discrimination. Many of these young workers are employed casually in the retail and hospitality sectors. Our community is also a culturally and linguistically diverse one, which represents another potential vulnerability.

I speak today on this bill because I want my community to feel safe at their jobs. I want mums and dads in our region to feel confident that their children are being treated appropriately at work, and I want young people and women in particular to have a positive first step into the workplace, without the threat of harassment or discrimination. With this bill, the Albanese Labor government is taking a significant step towards honouring another election commitment, a commitment to fully implement the recommendations of the Respect@Work report. It's a major step forward in eliminating workplace sexual harassment. I have spent my working life fighting for working people. I have seen firsthand the devastation that workplace harassment and sexual harassment can cause to victims-survivors. We can and we must do better.

I would also like to thank Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins for her work on this report and on the report into the parliament. The Jenkins report led to the establishment of the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service here in the building, a service that I as a staff member and as a staff representative have used. I have also recommended this service to other staff. And I have used it myself to help my development as a new employer here in the building. The staff at the PWSS are professional and caring, and it is one of the best developments that I have seen in my 30 years in this building. It will help to create a safer and more respectful workplace here.

With this bill, we step closer to a future of safe and respectful workplaces. I commend the bill to the House.

Stephen Bates (Brisbane, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome the government's commitment to the full suite of the Respect@Work recommendations. I thank the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins, for her good work in setting set out a comprehensive, practical and targeted suite of reforms to address the pervasive problem of sex based discrimination in Australian workplaces.

These recommendations are the product of many interviews and consultations with survivors, business owners, government, unions, NGOs, lawyers and others. They represent a holistic plan to address discrimination and structural inequalities faced by women to relieve the burden on victims and ultimately make workplaces safe for them. The recommendations were designed as an integrated package, but the previous government opted to cherrypick the recommendations it supported. The Greens' response, led by Senator Larissa Waters, called this out and condemned the approach.

The Greens are pleased to see the government recognise the need to finish the job and implement the report in full. The Senate inquiry into this bill is ongoing, and we may propose amendments in the Senate after that investigation is complete. However, we acknowledge that this bill is a welcome and overdue reform to make workplaces safe and respectful for everyone.

Every person has the right to a safe workplace, and these changes are urgently needed to protect women from the disproportionate levels of harassment and lack of protection they experience. The national sexual harassment survey found that nearly 40 per cent of women had been harassed at work, and many do not report their experiences for fear of reprisal or lack of confidence that any action will be taken. We also know that according to the Diversity Council Australia's 2018 report Out at Work Australian LGBTQI+ workers are almost 50 per cent more likely to have experienced harassment and/or discrimination in the past year than their non-LGBTQI+ counterparts. An alternative report found that six in 10 queer people in Australia had experienced verbal homophobic abuse in the workplace, while two in 10 had experienced physical violence. We know many queer workers lose their jobs when they come out as gay, and more than 17 per cent of participants felt that their careers had probably been restricted because of their sexual orientation.

Transgender and gender-diverse employees said that being deliberately misgendered and subjected to invasive questioning about their medical history was commonplace within the workforce. Startlingly, 64 per cent of the bullying and harassment reported came from the employee's immediate manager or other senior leaders within their organisation, while 28 per cent came from within their immediate team. It comes as no shock that only one in three LGBTQI+ people are out to everyone with whom they work. For trans and gender-diverse people, it's only one in five.

I understand that the member for Wentworth will be moving amendments to extend provisions that prevent the creation of a hostile work environment beyond sexual harassment and discrimination to cover all areas of discrimination. Putting the onus on changing workplace culture and creating safe work environments means it does not fall to individual employees, often victimised and worn down, to take action. LGBTQI+ employees need to feel safe at work always. We will support the proposed amendments.

The Respect@Work report recommendations focus primarily on women's experience of harassment, and action on that issue is critical. I also believe that the same protections could be implemented for the queer community, who also bear the burden of discrimination and harassment in workplaces in Australia.

Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

An unwanted hand on the knee or on the small of the back and a lewd comment are familiar encounters for many, if not most, women some time in their lives. Workplaces are meant to be professional and safe. For too many people, especially women, they are a battleground characterised by unwanted advances and microaggressions underpinned by unequal power dynamics, with women often silenced because of their status. According to the national inquiry into sexual harassment, almost two in five Australian women said that they have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. Although women are overrepresented, sexual harassment also affects men, with 26 per cent of men in the previous five years also experiencing sexual harassment.

However, gender is not the only lens. Vulnerability, no matter the context, is always intersectional. The national inquiry confirmed the playbook of intersectional disadvantage: people of younger age, who are gender diverse, of First Nations ancestry, with disability and from culturally diverse backgrounds were more at risk.

Aside from the profound personal impacts, what are the wider ramifications? In dollar terms, it was $3.8 billion, according to Deloitte Australia, in 2018. Women don't live in isolation. They live in communities and are often also the primary caregiver. How has this corrosive behaviour affected children? The Stop it at the Start campaign published a compilation of stories from children this year and it paints an enlightening picture. Olivia, 12, from Tasmania said:

There are so many young women and girls out that that feel worthless because of the way they are treated. I want to change the future of respect for all females of the world and make them feel like they belong. No girl or woman deserves to be treated so awfully.

Henry, 10 years old from Queensland, said:

Respect is a symbol of kindness. To respect women, we need to respect them in our words, our hearts and our minds.

That's wisdom from the mouths of babes. Young Australians clearly have a sophisticated and empathetic understanding of this issue. We need to catch up.

This is why the Albanese government is taking decisive action to combat sexual harassment in the Australian workplace by implementing all recommendations of the Respect@Work report. As you know, this report made 55 recommendations. This bill will implement seven of those recommendations and a number of related amendments to strengthen and clarify the legal framework around workplace sexual harassment. The bill has a strong focus on prevention and education—missing links, which, for too long, have placed an undue burden on victims to remedy misconduct that is actually rooted in cultural and systemic factors within organisations. When egregious acts of misconduct occur, it should be an opportunity—an opportunity for organisations to really scrutinise their culture, because these events are rarely isolated.

The bill will insert a new provision into the Sex Discrimination Act to prohibit conduct that results in an offensive, intimidating and humiliating environment for people. Sexually charged or hostile workplaces are fertile grounds for sexual harassment taking hold. Porn, trash talk, innuendo or dirty jokes can make people feel unwelcome, threatened or excluded. This provision provides clarity to employers on their obligations in creating a safe and respectful workplace. The cornerstone of this bill is to create a positive duty, to put the onus back on businesses and employers to do the right thing, to be proactive in their workplace and to prevent discrimination and harassment from taking hold in the first place. Waiting to act after the fact is not okay; it's not adequate. In fact, it's costly. So we are moving away from a reactive approach to a preventative stand.

The Human Rights Commission will work collaboratively with business to provide guidelines and education as to how to implement this report, and there will be a time lag of 12 months to enable businesses to actually implement and learn how to do this. So we're not abandoning businesses. We're going to be helping them. Representative bodies such as unions or professional societies will be able to progress a complaint to the Federal Court. Currently, if a complaint is not resolved at the commission stage of conciliation, it stalls. It dies. This amendment removes this procedural roadblock. Legal proceedings are costly and can impact access to justice. This is why we are introducing cost protections, so that applicants have greater certainty. We will ensure that victimisation can form the basis of both civil and criminal causes of action. We will extend the period also for when a complaint can be raised from six to 24 months in the Sex Discrimination Act, in line with other anti-discrimination laws in our country.

Gender inequality is a key driver of sexual harassment in the workplace, and it disproportionately affects women. To the female PhD student, who was threatened with a loss of career by a male supervisor if she did not sleep with him, we see you. To the woman who was stalked by a male colleague and ended up on anti-anxiety medications after dealing with this man, and then also dealing with the fallout at her workplace, we see you. This legislation was too late for these women, but it will help prevent many more cases like these. Many businesses are leading the way. It's time we dragged the others into the modern era. Workplace harassment affects individuals, families and communities. It is a drag on our productivity, innovation and economy. From a purely economic perspective, it's just bad for business. For too long, the onus has been on women to come forward and put their careers, relationships and their entire lives on the line when they speak up. I am proud that the Albanese government recognises that there is nothing wrong with women. We are determined to fix the structures and let our women thrive. I commend this bill to the House.

Sitting s uspended from 12:59 to 16:00

Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Bill 2022. This is the second piece of legislation in this place to implement recommendations made in the Respect@Work report. The report was the culmination of the landmark national inquiry, which took place under the former coalition government, into sexual harassment in Australian workplaces. The first piece of legislation went through the 46th Australian Parliament in the winter of 2021. In the main, the Sex Discrimination Fair Work (Respect at Work) Amendment Bill 2021 implemented those recommendations in the Respect@Work report that were within the purview of the Australian government.

As the Attorney-General, the member for Isaacs, rightfully said in his second reading speech last month:

The Respect@Work report was a watershed moment in recognising the impact of sexual harassment in Australian workplaces …

That report found that one-third of all people had experienced workplace sexual harassment in the preceding five years, and, in the case of women, that was around 40 per cent. As my friend the member for Berowra said in the debate on Tuesday, the latest national survey on sexual harassment will be released within weeks and we can only hope, given the national attention that has rightly been paid to this issue in recent years, that the statistics will show some sign of improvement.

But, of course, sexual harassment in the workplace is not an affliction of recent years. Any woman in this place will be able to recite at least one or two stories of unwelcome physical interest, inappropriate conversations, the well-meaning but slightly leering affection. For many in this place, as well as others outside this place, it can be a daily occurrence. It is not always physical. Sometimes it is situational: sexually explicit posters on the wall or suggestive pictures on a screensaver. Sometimes it is clothed in jest, as though that makes it less offensive, suggestive comments and poorly worded jokes of a sexual or intimate nature.

It took the Respect@Work report and a series of public and private debates both external to and within this place to galvanise support across the parliament to implement the 55 recommendations of the report. The report was released in March 2020 and by March 2021 we had all had a gutful, as the member for McPherson so succinctly put it around that time. It was a time for change and the work of the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins, and her team at the Australian Human Rights Commission was to be the agent for change.

There is possibly no more capable captain of change than Kate Jenkins. I first met Kate 25 years ago, and I consider her a friend, a mentor and an inspiration. At that stage, Kate was a young partner at Freehill, Hollingdale and Page, and had built a significant commercial legal practice from scratch in equal opportunity law, among other areas, related to employment. Kate was, in this respect, as were many others, ahead of her time. A number of Australia's leading law firms set up similar practices in years to follow, but never to the same level of success and respect that Kate had achieved in corporate circles by the mid-1990s.

After 20 years in legal practice, where she could see the impact she had had across so many of Australia's ASX 200 companies, Kate took some persuading to leave the private sector to take up the stewardship of Victoria's Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission. In that capacity she led the independent review into sex discrimination, sexual harassment and predatory behaviour within the Victoria Police.

As an aside, I reflect on a meeting I had a few weeks ago in my electorate at the beautiful mechanics hall in Somerville with a remarkable group of people from across the Mornington Peninsula to discuss issues of family violence and sexual assault. This group included members of No to Violence, Sexual Assault Services Victoria, and Safe and Equal. I'm greatly indebted to them for the time that they gave me and the passion and determination with which they described their work with their clients, and the broader community involved in addressing sexual assault and family violence across my electorate. In this regard I'm also indebted to Rosie Batty, with whom I spent a few hours recently in my electorate office. Rosie is a powerful advocate with an acute understanding of disadvantage and the barriers many women face in getting the help that they need.

Over those few hours at the mechanics hall I talked at length with our local support professionals and counsellors about the experience particularly of women navigating a complicated group of services, as well as the persistent unmet needs for services that assist families suffering from violence and the victims of sexual assault. However, one remarkable observation from all in the room was that, while things were not perfect, their experience with the Victorian police had been exceptionally positive. The training that the police get is excellent. It has improved out of this world. I heard it said over and over. This is in part due to Kate Jenkins's work during her time at the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission.

After a few years in Victoria Kate joined the Australian government, taking up the Sex Discrimination Commissioner role at the Australian Human Rights Commission in April 2016—again not without some encouragement perhaps, because she felt there was still more to be done in Victoria. In taking up this national role she followed in the steps of a string of great Australian women, leaders and reformers in their field—among them household names: Elizabeth Broderick, Pru Goward and Quentin Bryce—but I suspect Kate's legacy will be the one we talk most about in this place, in the Australian media, in our workplaces and in our universities for decades to come.

Kate's work on the National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces and her report Respect@Work will stand the test of time. Her subsequent work in this place through her direct engagement, as well as her team's, with leaders, members of parliament, members of parliament staff, as well as the thousands who work—some might say live—in this place, in this system, has been nothing short of revolutionary.

We all owe Kate a debt of gratitude, and none so more than I do. You see Kate taught me how to be an employment, industrial relations and equal opportunity lawyer. In early 2001, after a somewhat colourful departure from this place, Kate brought me into Freehills and shared with me the already substantive knowledge and wisdom she had garnered not just in equal opportunity law but also in legal practice, industrial relations, employment law and building a business from scratch. There was no better boss, no better backer and no better buddy. So there are few in this place more proud than I am to see the stamp that Kate Jenkins will leave on Australian public life and, more importantly, in each and every workplace.

What Kate taught me as a leader and equal opportunity lawyer at that time served me well in the many years I would later spend in senior public policy roles and political life, both in this place on the blue carpet and in government in Victoria. Every time I encountered an unwelcome yet hopeful advance, an inopportune declaration of affection, I had Kate's annual Freehills Christmas party instructions, as well as a ready-to-hand lecture on the ill-advised nature of a relationship between superiors and subordinates, which I have applied liberally since.

This brings me to the provisions of this bill and our debate in this place today. As with much of the good legislation coming before us in this place at this time, this bill follows the work of the former coalition government, particularly under the early stewardship of my friend the former member for Higgins, the Hon. Kelly O'Dwyer. The bill implements the seven remaining recommendations of the Respect@Work report that were not fully implemented in the Sex Discrimination and Fair Work (Respect at Work) Amendment Bill 2021. In February this year the coalition had started consultation on the outstanding recommendations, so the bill should not be scratched up just on the list of achievements of the new government. This is one we share, and in that I'm being generous. So the bill comes to this place with the support of the coalition in many—indeed, most—aspects. The member for Berowra has flagged a small number of amendments, largely designed to ensure that Australia's small businesses are able to understand and comply with their obligations under the act once operational.

The bill requires workplaces to proactively create an environment in which sexual harassment and discrimination is not tolerated. Workplaces need to actively make sure they provide a safe environment for their employees. The bill requires employers to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate unlawful discrimination on the basis of sex, including sexual harassment. Importantly, the bill also includes a 12-month delay in the commencement of enforcement provisions in relation to the positive duty to avoid a workplace environment which is hostile on the ground of sex. While we are all impatient to see a hostility-free workplace, this 12-month period is necessary to ensure businesses across the breadth of the nation can be informed of their responsibilities and take the necessary action to meet them. While we have all now been trained to within an inch of our political lives in this place about our workplace responsibilities, and not before time, this work has not occurred to the same extent outside this building. We cannot assume such training and preparedness forms part of business as usual across the Australian small business ecosystem.

In my own part of this great nation, the Mornington Peninsula, businesses are running hard. Most are operating at 50 to 60 per cent of their capacity due to a lack of staff. Many of them are in bringing workers from overseas for our summer season, which sees our population surge by around 100,000 residents over January. Our busy working summers are a beautiful melting pot of different employment experiences and, in some cases, practices. Our small business sector will need time to ready itself for the new positive duty.

This bill is the subject of a Senate committee inquiry which will report next week. No doubt the needs and preparedness of business, especially small business, will be examined in full by that committee. Our modest amendments go to ensuring the bill's new provisions can be implemented with best effect to remove hostility from all workplaces.

I thank the member for Berowra for the time he has given me in discussing the intent, impact and operation of the coalition's amendments. As he said in his second reading speech on this bill earlier this week, 'There is no place for sexual harassment in Australian society or Australian workplaces.' I add it has been thus for decades, since women took their place in the Australian workforce. There is no excuse anymore. We have all been through too much.

Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of the Albanese Labor government's commitments was, of course, to implement the recommendations of the Australian Human Rights Commission's 2020 Respect@Work report and to introduce a positive duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment as a priority. The bill implements all remaining legislative recommendations from the Respect@Work report. The exception from this bill is recommendation 28, which Minister Burke is progressing separately.

This piece of legislation is the result of decades of advocacy by women's organisations, which began calling for laws to combat gender based discrimination in the seventies. Almost 40 years ago, in 1984, this parliament legislated the Sex Discrimination Act, which prohibited sexual harassment at work. However, as Australia's Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins noted in her Respect@Work report:

… the rate of change has been disappointingly slow. Australia now lags behind other countries in preventing and responding to sexual harassment.

A 2018 survey by the commission found that one in three people had experienced sexual harassment at work. Two in five women, 39 per cent; and one in four men, 26 per cent, were subjected to this reprehensible act. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were even more likely to be sexually harassed at work. The Jenkins report recommended a new model to fix our broken regulatory system that is clearly not fit for purpose and not protecting people.

The report's 55 recommendations included calls for a national survey every four years; developing a national evidence base on sexual harassment; recognising it as a form of gender based violence; school based training on respectful relationships; establishing a workplace sexual harassment council; legislating an objective of substantive equality between women and men, rather than equality of opportunity; creating a positive duty on employers to eliminate sex discrimination; giving the commission a broad inquiry function and enforcement powers to examine witnesses; requiring ASX limited companies to report on cases; and funding to re-establish working women's centres. At the last election, Labor committed to fully implementing all recommendations of the Respect@Work report.

I personally was very committed to lobbying for and ensuring funding for the NT Working Women's Centre. It is something I have done for years, and I've seen firsthand the positive impacts that they have. The Northern Territory represents a unique and often complex environment for working women that can leave them more vulnerable to harassment. The NT Working Women's Centre reported that 30 per cent of their clients came from culturally and linguistically diverse communities; 16 per cent identified as living with a disability; 11 per cent were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander First Nations women; and 56 per cent were from regional, rural or remote communities. The centre is the only service provider in the NT that provides holistic support to women experiencing issues in the workplace. I thank them for and congratulate them on their ongoing work representing and assisting Territory women.

While sexual harassment in the workplace is a very serious issue, the NT Working Women's Centre also provides services to women experiencing other workplace issues such as discrimination, bullying and harassment, and the impacts of domestic and family violence. For many women working in the Northern Territory, maintaining employment is critical because they might have limited options finding another job—even if they wanted to. Some of the obstacles include living in a regional or remote area with very few work opportunities; visa restrictions that are tied to specific employers or regions; family responsibilities, including caring for relatives; and cultural or community links and obligations.

I am delighted that we have been able to provide more support for women at work by extending our funding for these services. The Albanese Labor government is proud to equip the Australian Human Rights Commission in the fight against the national scourge that is sexual harassment in the workplace. This bill realises the government's election commitment to fully implement the recommendations of the Respect@Work report, something I note that the previous government did not do. After commissioning the work in 2018, the Morrison government ignored the final report for over a year, leaving it to gather dust on the desk of the former attorney-general. You do have to wonder why that may have been. It simply should not have taken this long.

The Sex Discrimination Commissioner herself described the former government's weak response to her report as a 'missed opportunity'. The former coalition government eventually presented a bill to parliament in response to this report, but that was nowhere near strong enough to deliver the legislative changes proposed by the Sex Discrimination Commissioner. In A roadmap for respect, the current opposition was unclear on whether it even supported the positive duty recommendation in the report, which would make it a duty for employers to monitor and prevent sexual harassment at work.

In this bill, the Albanese Labor government is proposing reforms that are critical for ensuring safer, respectful and more equitable workplaces for all Australians. This Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Bill 2022 updates a suite of legislation: the Sex Discrimination Act 1984, the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986, the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012, the Disability Discrimination Act 1992, the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 and the Age Discrimination Act 2004.

Following recommendation 17, the bill introduces in the Sex Discrimination Act a positive duty on employers to eliminate sex discrimination, sexual and sex based harassment, hostile work environments and victimisation. Employers will be responsible for protecting workers from, for deterring against and for reporting on these odious acts. Following recommendation 18, the bill gives the commission the function of assessing and enforcing compliance with the positive duty in the Sex Discrimination Act. This legislation, in other words, equips the commission with the powers it needs to hold accountable anyone who sexually harasses a colleague and anyone who covers up for them.

Following recommendation 16a, the bill replaces a clause stating that an object of the act was to achieve 'equality of opportunity between men and women' with a new object to 'achieve substantive equality between men and women'. This is a major reform, and it raises our collective aim to achieve full equality between men and women. That's an objective this government is very proud to advance.

Following recommendation 16b, the bill ensures that the provisions relating to sex based harassment in the Sex Discrimination Act extend to conduct of a demeaning nature—not just to conduct of a 'seriously' demeaning nature. That will lower the threshold for reporting harassment so that all levels of toxic work cultures can be exposed to the light of day and sanitised.

These are not small reforms or mere tinkering with legislation. These are profound changes which have the potential to leave workplaces across the country a lot safer for everyone. Sexual harassment doesn't just affect those two-in-five women and one-in-four men, although it affects them for life due to trauma. Sexual harassment affects workplaces from small businesses up to large corporations and, in turn, the productivity of our economy. But, most of all, it tarnishes our self-respect as a nation and shakes our belief that all Australians can walk this land and work in workplaces safely. Freedom from harm shouldn't be a dream. Respect at work is a right—not a privilege for only some of us. Again, in finishing, I want to thank all of those working in this space to get us safer workplaces, because everyone deserves to feel safe at work.

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

The Respect@Work report shone a deeply troubling light on the culture within Australian workplaces. For some, the findings were surprising. For many of us here today, they were anything but. As the Attorney-General acknowledged in his second reading speech, sexual harassment is a serious and pervasive issue in Australia. It affects all of our industries and our professions. It's endemic across our workplaces, and for too long it has been accepted by society. When we could've chosen to act, we have turned away and ignored the problem.

Our country's inaction is borne out in facts. One-in-three people experienced sexual harassment at their workplace in the last five years. Amongst those people, almost half had experienced harassment previously at the same workplace, and yet only one-in-five of those people sought support or advice. The foundations of the Respect@Work report are the lived experiences of thousands of Australian women in the workplace. It's the stories of our mums and daughters, of our best friends and our old friends and of our colleagues and our communities. It's the display of pornographic material in our offices, the unwanted sexual advance at the Christmas party and the offensive and derogatory comments that masquerade as so-called banter.

The recent election may well have been about climate, but it's also been about women. Women in Wentworth and around the country are saying, 'Enough is enough.' Women in Wentworth and around the country stood up and demanded a response to the harassment, to the abuse and to the inequity of women across Australia, who have been subjugated for too long. They returned me and a record number of other women to this place to deliver that change.

As I speak in support of this bill today, I stand on their shoulders. I stand side by side with many thousands of survivors of sexual harassment and discrimination across this country, because enough is enough. That is why I'm delighted to speak on the bill today. This is a bill that prohibits conduct which subjects a person to a hostile work environment on the grounds of their sex. This is a bill that places a positive duty on employers to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate unlawful discrimination on the basis of sex. This is a bill that empowers the Australian Human Rights Commission to conduct inquiries into systemic and unlawful discrimination and to support businesses to make work environments in Australia a safer place. I congratulate the government on its commitment to implementing the recommendations of the Respect@Work report and on its decision to prioritise this issue in the early months of their government.

The women of this country have spoken, and I'm glad the government is finally listening. However, we cannot allow the speed of change that is necessary to lead this legislation, which limits the ability of survivors to seek legal recourse. The cost provisions in the bill introduce what is known as a 'cost-neutrality approach'. As a default position, this means that in an unlawful discrimination proceeding each party would bear their own costs. There's an appealing logic to a cost-neutrality approach, and certainly it was my first instinct to support it. However, failing to reward successful applications with a favourable costs order may deter those with a meritorious claim from coming forward. This is because there is significant risk that a survivor's own legal costs will be higher than any compensation awarded. As currently drafted the bill gives an incentive for well-funded defendants to draw out proceedings against less-well-funded plaintiffs, adding to the trauma that survivors already are facing. When only 17 per cent of people experiencing sexual harassment make a formal complaint, we cannot afford to add further barriers to stop people coming forward. I know that this bill has been drafted with the best of intentions, and therefore I urge the government to work with the crossbench to consider options for costs that ensure equal access to justice for those who experienced harassment or discrimination.

But there's another key concern for me: why this bill fails LGBTQ people. It is, sadly, not just women who experience harassment and discrimination in the workplace. Unfortunately, many of those in the LGBTQ community are also badly affected, and governments of all stripes have for many years failed to address this. The discrimination and harassment experienced by the LGBTQ community in Australia is borne out by shocking findings in our country's largest-ever survey of the community, conducted in 2020. This survey found that six in 10 LGBTQ people felt that they had been unfairly treated to some degree in the last year because of their sexual orientation. This figure is even higher for people who are trans or gender diverse. Even worse, around 25 per cent of LGBTQ people have experienced sexual harassment in the past year, including being spat at or receiving an offensive gesture. In the workplace there is significant ongoing discrimination. A Human Rights Commission report found that 62 per cent of LGBTQ people felt they were unable to disclose their sexual orientation in the workplace despite wanting to and that there are higher rates of workplace sexual harassment among LGBTQ people compared to those who identify as straight or heterosexual.

Behind these statistics is an appalling lived experience for many thousands of ordinary Australians: people who are afraid to bring their whole selves to work, because they're afraid of what their co-workers might say; people who stayed quiet when they were harassed, because they think no-one will believe them; people who came to me in floods of tears during the election campaign, because of the abuse they had received due to the overt politicisation of issues around trans rights.

The point is that nobody should be subject to conduct in the workplace which is offensive, which is intimidating or which is humiliating, regardless of whether that conduct relates to their sex, to their sexual orientation, to their gender identity or to any other protected attribute. However, in this noble pursuit of swiftly implementing the remaining findings of the Respect@Work report, this bill does not provide appropriate protections for LGBTQ communities. Hostile-environment provisions, which are critical to defining and preventing the types of harassment that have characterised our workplaces for too long, do not extend to hostility relating to somebody's sexuality. By extension, the positive duty placed on employers by this bill is limited to pretending discrimination but only on the basis of sex. In both of these cases, this means the provisions of the bill do not reflect the full range of characteristics that are protected under the Sex Discrimination Act or the characteristics that are protected under similar discrimination laws such as the Racial Discrimination Act. We have an opportunity to put this right, to improve the bill before the House and to have a safe space at work not just for women but for people regardless of their identity.

On proposed changes to the bill, there are two ways that these can be done. First, the government can, and should, amend the bill so that the provisions relating to hostile workplace environments on the grounds of sex are expanded to include all attributes that are protected under the Sex Discrimination Act. This includes hostility on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity and whether someone is pregnant or breastfeeding. The government should also consider whether it's necessary to amend other federal discrimination laws, such as the Racial Discrimination Act, for the same reason.

Second, the government should extend the positive duty on employers in the same way such that it reflects the discrimination laws to which they are already subject. As currently written, the bill only requires employers to prevent unlawful sex discrimination and not other forms of unlawful discrimination. Now is the opportunity to address the intersectionality of discriminatory practices and to create a safe work environment for all, which is certainly the ambition of this parliament. I will be moving amendments in relation to both of these areas and I call on the government and the opposition to support them. Harmonising the provisions in this bill across different protected characteristics makes sense for those who it protects, but it also make sense for business. Some firms I speak to already have the measures detailed in this bill in place and they feel legislation is now catching up with industry good practice. Others acknowledge there is much more work to do and they are keen to get on with the job.

However, what is not helpful for businesses is a piecemeal approach to legislation that leaves them with a complex array of requirements that are inconsistent across discrimination, corporate and work health and safety laws. This has unfortunately been the approach to this legislation across many areas by many governments for many years. It has left them, many of whom care deeply about doing the right thing, scratching their heads and trying to understand whether they are compliant or not with all the different types of legislation that apply differently in different circumstances.

So I urge the government to consider how they can expand the provisions of this bill to ensure they consistently address discrimination across all protected characteristics, whether that be gender, sexual orientation, disability or race. To support business with the implementation, I urge the Human Rights Commission to draw up regulations and guidance supporting this bill that, to the greatest extent possible, reflect a consistent approach with existing work health and safety requirements. This is a landmark piece of legislation for women across Australia. I urge the government to ensure that this is also a landmark piece of legislation for LGBTQ people in Australia and those suffering discrimination.

Anika Wells (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Respect@Work report investigated sexual harassment in Australian workplaces. Harassment, assault and abuse can have a lasting effect on survivors, and I recognise that days like today in particular are highly distressing. My thoughts at this time are with the victim-survivors of assault right across the country.

Last year, I voiced to the House my hope for what legitimate action on this issue could look like. At the time, millions of women across Australia watched and waited for the previous government to act. To no-one's surprise, the former government buried this report. When the election came, women across Australia demanded change. They helped change the government because they wanted action. They wanted to be heard and they wanted their concerns addressed by the lawmakers of their own country.

We now have a new Labor government, a government that has been listening to women, a government that is taking action to legislate some very long-fought-for justice for women. The 18-month national inquiry, led by Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins, provided an opportunity for thousands of Australians to share their stories—stories of suffering, stories of pain and stories of harassment and assault that Australians have faced at work, including in this very building we stand in today. The walls of Parliament House hold countless stories, many of which came to light and were heard as part of this report. I want to acknowledge the strength, bravery and courage of all who came forward and contributed to this report. The horrific stories that were bravely shared signified courage and showed Australians that sexual discrimination, sexual harassment and sexual assault are very much prevalent in our workplaces. They occur at every level, in every industry and in every profession across the nation.

I want to thank Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins and her staff at the Human Rights Commission for their tireless work in handing down this report. We appreciate you. I would also like to acknowledge the work of my colleagues the Minister for the Environment and Water and the now Deputy Speaker and member for Newcastle. They promised Australian women that a Labor government would see the implementation of all 55 recommendations of the Sex Discrimination Commissioner's Respect@Work report.

Last year 100,000 women across Australia took part in the March for Justice to have their voices heard. That march took place in the shadow of the revolution and reform that was brought about by women in the 1970s. That is how long women have been waiting for action like this.

Then we had a Prime Minister and a government who refused to even walk out the front door to listen to 10,000 women and supporters who were demanding respect at work on the lawns of Parliament House. Today we have a new government that is acting. The Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Bill marks a significant step towards fulfilling the government's commitment to implementing the recommendations of the Respect@Work report as a matter of priority. This bill fully implements seven recommendations, including all legislative recommendations, barring the inclusion of a prohibition on sexual harassment in the Fair Work Act 2009, which the minister for Employment and Workplace Relations is working on separately.

Every single person has the right to be safe, respected and valued in their workplace. Sexual harassment is not inevitable. It is preventable. We want Australians to know that no matter what you do or where you work, you should feel safe. We want to set the standard for the world to see. Being safe means that whatever your role and whatever you do, you are treated with fairness and respect. This includes ensuring that sporting participants are safe on and off the field. I am yet to find anyone who can assure me that Australian sporting institutions are safe. Just look at what we have had in the past three years. From the findings in Swimming Australia's review of the treatment of female swimmers, the appalling allegations regarding treatment of Indigenous players, to the Australian Human Rights Commission's shocking report into the culture of gymnastics, with review after review after review we have heard horrific stories.

The independent review into gymnastics, conducted by Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins, was no exception. The review heard athletes' experiences of misconduct, bullying, abuse, harassment and assault. It is past time that we collectively acknowledged the systemic issues that undermine and underpin the sports we love—the abuse of power, assault and harassment. I acknowledge the athletes that have come forward with their stories and respect their courage, but, too often, they find it difficult to speak up in the face of intense competition and the power of the Australian sporting dream. In my new role as the Minister for Sport, I bear the responsibility to act. So I have set out to make a contribution that progresses integrity and equality within our wide world of sport, and to help provide a voice to those who feel unheard.

The Albanese Labor government has now created a new Safety in Sport Division to be part of Sport Integrity Australia. This division will have focus on abuses of power, discrimination and vilification. It will include a key measure to expand SIA's existing 1300 hotline to allow for anonymous reporting of abuse in sport. The anonymous hotline can be used by anyone in sport, past or present, who feels the need to be heard and who seeks support. This will help inform the government's policy so we can continue to act and develop policy to keep athletes safe in their workplace.

The Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Bill is crucial to ensuring our workplaces are environments where respect is automatic and treating people with humanity is the bare minimum. For too long, workplaces, including Parliament House, treated people without care, without respect and without dignity. Two in five women, or 39 per cent, and one in four men, or 26 per cent, have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. This is a societal issue that every Australian and every Australian workplace can help address.

I am proud to see that the Albanese government is moving decisively to implement the outstanding recommendations of the Respect@Work report. The implementation of these recommendations will change lives. They will have an immediate impact in setting a standard to help in eliminating workplace sexual harassment discrimination and victimisation.

Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Respect@Work report shone a light on the scale of workplace sexual harassment, something that we've become all too familiar with in this place, sadly. In her landmark report, the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins, set out a comprehensive, practical and targeted suite of reforms to tackle the problem. Those recommendations were the product of many interviews and consultations with survivors, business owners, governments, unions, NGOs, lawyers and others. They represented a holistic plan to address discrimination and structural inequalities, to relieve the burden on victims and to make workplaces safe. The recommendations were designed as an integrated package, but the previous government opted to cherrypick the recommendations that it supported. We called it out at the time, and we're pleased to see this government recognise that they need to finish the job and implement the report in full.

The Senate inquiry into this bill, the Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Bill 2022, is ongoing, and we may propose amendments in the Senate after that investigation is complete. However, we acknowledge that this bill is a welcome and overdue reform to make workplaces safe and respectful for everyone. We're pleased that the objectives of this will be supported by giving additional funding to the Australian Human Rights Commission. This will allow the Human Rights Commission to undertake its extra powers and duties and provide funding for the national network of Working Women's Centres to provide practical advice and support to employees experiencing harassment.

The bill has a number of important provisions. Schedule 2 imposes positive duties on employers to maintain a safe workplace and gives the AHRC powers to investigate compliance with the duty. The positive duty was the centrepiece of the Respect@Work report. Eliminating workplace sexual harassment will take a big cultural shift. A positive duty to create and maintain a safe workplace is the best way to achieve that. It shifts the focus away from individual employees having to report bad behaviour and individual employers taking an ad hoc approach on what to do about it. Instead, it requires employers to proactively prevent discrimination and harassment in their workplace.

The previous government and some members of the business community maintained that the positive duty in the Sex Discrimination Act was not needed as workplace health and safety laws already include duties to ensure workplace safety. However, that duty is clearly not working. If it was, we wouldn't be seeing more than one-third of workers experiencing sexual harassment. Without a positive duty, we are stuck with the current reactive, adversarial victim complaint approach that has failed so many people—mostly women, people of colour, people with disability or queer folk.

The bill also gives the Human Rights Commission broad powers to investigate where a workplace is suspected of not meeting its positive duties. Employers are issued with show-cause notice, provided advice about what is needed to meet the duty and given an opportunity to set out a plan for what they'll do. The commission can accept voluntary enforceable undertakings from businesses that commit businesses to improvements. This is an approach that has worked well for other offences monitored by the AHRC. Where the employer 's response is inadequate, the commission may seek orders requiring actions to be taken. The emphasis is on supporting employers to be better employers, with a compliance and enforcement framework that allows strong action to be taken where employers don't lift their game.

Schedule 1 is also important because it focuses on hostile workplace environments. It prohibits a person subjecting another person to a workplace environment that is hostile on the grounds of sex. It calls for express prohibition of creating or facilitating a hostile environment in which sex based harassment is excused, ignored or even encouraged. Complementing the positive duty, this recommendation takes a workplace-level approach to cultural change.

Sexual harassment is more likely to occur where a workplace environment is sexually charged or hostile even if the conduct is not directed at a particular person—for example, on mine sites where women are habitually given menial tasks and where predatory behaviour is ignored; in hospitality businesses where women are expected to wear skimpy clothing and put up with lecherous customers; and in lunch rooms where sexist, racist or homophobic jokes are told or laughed at by senior staff.

The AHRC's 2018 national survey of sexual harassment found significantly higher rates of harassment in the fast-food and retail industries, particularly for young women. This schedule provides a clear obligation on employers and staff to identify cultures, work practices, uniforms and office set-ups that could create an environment in which harassment is facilitated, condoned or ignored.

Schedule 3 of this bill investigates systemic discrimination. Again, this schedule recognises that addressing sexual harassment issues at a systemic level will relieve the burden on individual workers to pursue complaints and will encourage cultural change. These changes allow the Human Rights Commission to have a look at systemic problems and practices. Examining systemic behaviour across a sector or a workplace helps to identify root causes of the discrimination affecting many employees, rather than asking one person to stand up to their boss directly and run the gauntlet of the legal system and risk their reputation, their mental health and their job.

Schedule 4 outlines representative actions by unions on behalf of those affected. Many workers want the harassment to stop but they don't want to be named as a victim. They don't want to go through a court process and the emotional and financial costs involved. Representative applications by unions in the Federal Court or the Federal Circuit Court will provide a mechanism for genuine cases to be heard and employees to get justice without the same personal cost.

Schedule 5 of the bill details the cost protections for complainants. It recognises that financial risks are a significant barrier to workers making complaints. The Women's Legal Centre ACT has said:

Many women worry that they will not be believed and will be forced to pay the other side's legal fees. In the case of large businesses and government departments, these fees can be so significant that the average person would face financial ruin. It's no surprise many women decide not to take this gamble.

The decision to make a complaint against someone in your workplace will always be difficult.

On this matter of costs, the member for Kooyong, Dr Ryan, has proposed amendments to instead introduce an equal access model that protects a complaint against an adverse costs order, other than when they've acted vexatiously, but allows them to be awarded costs when they succeed. The prospect of costs will help attract pro bono legal support and remove the cost risks. This is, as I understand it, also a provision that applies in whistleblower legislation. The Greens support the member for Kooyong's amendments. We hope the government accepts them.

This bill is otherwise a very good bill. Some other matters might come out during the Senate inquiry that we may initiate in the Senate. I hope the government has heard our support for this bill and our commendation of the government for introducing it. But this costs provision is important, and I don't think the government has got it quite right.

At the moment, as I understand it, in these kinds of claims if a complainant is successful then the other side will pay their costs. At the moment that allows for a large number of people to access the system in a way that they otherwise wouldn't. They wouldn't be able to do it. They can engage lawyers, and those lawyers can look at the claim and work out if it is likely to be successful. If so, they can then litigate the matter on behalf of the complainant and get a good outcome in the knowledge that the complainant won't be forced to bear the total of their own lawyer's costs. In other words, if the complainant has a good claim that they have been discriminated against or have suffered then they can go to court with legal representation knowing that the other side will have to pay their costs if it is a good claim and they win.

The government is proposing to shift that so that complainants now have to bear their own costs. The problem with that is that in some instances that may in fact make it unviable for someone to get a lawyer and pursue their claim. I understand the reason for the government doing this. They're saying that they're worried about a complainant thinking: 'What if I lose? Will I be ordered to pay costs? Will I have to meet my employer's costs as well?' But I think the government has gone too far because by saying that everyone just bears their own costs in this might actually discourage people from raising it, because they might go to a lawyer and get advice that they have a good claim but the legal fees will eat up the whole claim. So a lawyer could say, 'Yes, you have good claim under this new legislation, but now, because of the change made by the government, you have to cover your own costs, and I'm sorry to tell you that your own costs are going to eat up a substantial amount of what we're likely to achieve.'

A way of making sure that people feel comfortable about coming forward and not fear having to pay their employer's costs if they lose but still maintaining the integrity of the system is to do what the member for Kooyong is proposing—that is, to include an amendment that protects a complainant and says, 'You will not be liable for your own legal costs unless you act vexatiously.' If you bring a complaint in good faith—this is the member for Kooyong's amendment, which we support—and you're not being vexatious, you would have a shield and know you won't have to pay costs. Even if you lose, you won't have to pay costs, but, if you win, the other side will have to pay your costs because they committed something that was wrong. That's the kind of provision and protection that applies to whistleblowers in other legislation so whistleblowers have the confidence to come forward knowing they're not going to suffer a financial penalty. So long as they're not acting vexatiously or maliciously, they're not going to be asked to pay costs even if it's looked at and it's determined, 'It doesn't quite meet the test, but it was a good-faith claim.'

I urge the government to reconsider this question of costs, because I think it may have an effect opposite to what the government is proposing. It may actually discourage people's ability to get legal representation to follow these complaints through, because it will increase the likelihood that lawyers will say to some people: 'Yes, you've got a good claim. Yes, you have been harassed, but, I'm sorry, the amount we're going to be able to recover compared with what you're going to have to pay in lawyer fees now may not make it worth your while, because the government changed the law.' I don't think it's the government's intention to discourage people from bringing good-faith complaints, but I think that would potentially be the effect of it unless the member for Kooyong's amendment succeeds. If it doesn't succeed here, we'll be pursuing in the Senate. I think that, through the Senate inquiry, the government is going to hear that it would potentially have the effect of deterring complaints from being brought.

I hope the government takes that suggestion in good faith and considers it, because what we're asking is to bring it in line with, say, whistleblower protection. This is someone who is blowing the whistle on sexual harassment or misconduct. They should be entitled to have their day in court and they shouldn't be turned away from doing it as a result of the government changing the law in a way that makes it no longer financially viable for them to do. I hope the government will consider the member for Kooyong's amendment and also the Greens amendment when it gets to the Senate if they don't accept it in the House.

Finally, schedule 6 extends the Workplace Gender Equality Agency reporting powers to the Commonwealth public sector. Measuring data and monitoring progress is key to closing the gender pay gap that persists across all industries. The Greens have long called for reporting obligations to apply to the public sector and to private-sector companies with more than 50 employees. We are pleased to see the bill extends these obligations to the Commonwealth public sector and continue to push for robust and transparent reporting across more workplaces and across more measures.

The Greens support this bill. We welcome the decision of the government to refrain from cherry-picking the recommendations of the Respect@Work report—as the previous government sought to—and to pass a law which can finally start to address these pervasive issues across our workplaces. We will continue to pursue relevant amendments in the Senate and support the member for Kooyong's amendment, but we will support this bill in the House.

Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today in support of the government's Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Bill 2022. This government is serious about equality for women from all walks of life. No longer are women largely excluded from the decision-making and priority-setting positions of government. I'm so proud to serve with so many experienced Labor women—women who have blazed trails in this place for future generations to follow. I'm proud to be part of an intake of new members of parliament that comprises more female members than ever and is more diverse in ways that mean we better represent the communities we serve.

One of the important things to come of this hard-fought greater representation of women is that the concerns and experiences of women won't be overlooked. This is not to say that there aren't many good men who are also aware of and determined to address gender equality, and I'm also proud to serve amongst them. But, with that many women at the table—that many women so rich in experience, knowledge and passion—the concerns and experience of women won't be bumped for other priorities. You have only to look at this government's priorities since taking office to see this. This morning 10 days paid domestic violence leave for all workers was legislated. The Minister for Women and Minister for Finance, Katy Gallagher, presented the government's women's budget statement. In the House of Representatives chamber this morning, the minister for industrial relations, Tony Burke, introduced the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill 2022. That bill implements the sole remaining recommendation of the landmark Respect@Work report not covered by this current bill I'm speaking to today. It will empower workers in predominantly feminised industries to more effectively argue for what they deserve: wages commensurate with the important work that they do. So it's absolutely crystal clear that the interests of women are at the heart of what this government does.

When I was 18 years old, at my very first job in a very large government department in Adelaide the workshops had pictures of naked women cut from girly magazines on the wall in my view, in public view. As an 18-year-old girl straight from school—a girls' school—and a new employee, I would walk into the workshops full of older men in their place of work with these pictures on the wall. To say it was uncomfortable is an understatement. Then, working as a waitress during university, I was harassed physically and verbally by patrons in a family restaurant on an ongoing basis. We'd like to think that this sort of thing is in the past, but then in working in the women's services sector I heard stories from women whose lives were changed devastatingly by sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace in our current time.

This bill implements the remaining legislative recommendations of the Australian Human Rights Commission's 2020 Respect@Work: sexual harassment national inquiry report. As Australia's Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins tells us in the Respect@Work report, Australia once led the way globally in tackling sexual harassment. Indeed, even before the federal Sex Discrimination Act in 1984 specifically prohibited sexual harassment at work, my home state of South Australia had introduced protections against discrimination on the basis of sex in 1975. Yet the Respect@Work report found that Australia's legislative framework for responding to sexual harassment is now out of date and lags behind other countries.

Indeed, the Human Rights Commission's most recent widely conducted survey of the national experience of sexual harassment found that sexual harassment in Australian workplaces is widespread and pervasive. According to their survey, one in three people had experienced sexual harassment at work in the past five years. Breaking this down by gender, two in five women and one in four men had experienced harassment at work. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were more likely to have been harassed than non-Indigenous people, and we know that there are additional barriers and challenges that people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and members of the LBGTQI+ community face when targeted with harassment. So this bill forms part of the government's response to this challenge.

In substance, the bill introduces a positive duty on employers and people running a business to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate sex discrimination, sexual and sex based harassment, hostile work environments and victimisation as far as possible. The bill provides the Human Rights Commission with the function of assessing and enforcing compliance with a positive duty. Crucially, the bill also makes a significant alteration to the Sex Discrimination and Fair Work (Respect at Work) Amendment Act 2021, passed by the previous government. It replaces a section which stated it was an object of the act 'to achieve equal opportunity between men and women' with an object 'to achieve substantive equality between men and women'.

The bill also expressly prohibits conduct that results in a hostile work environment on the basis of sex and ensures Commonwealth public sector organisations are also required to report to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency on its gender equality indicators. In totality, this bill should go a long way towards ensuring safer, respectful and more equitable workplaces for all Australians. No-one should be made to feel unsafe or unwelcome at their place of work. It's simply not right.

Of course, there remains much work to be done. Sexual harassment, as with most gender based violence, is really about power. It's about the power of one person to carry out their will regardless of the impact on others, to make another person feel the power imbalance that exists between them; it diminishes, humiliates and silences victims; and we know that it remains the case that too often too many workplaces are characterised by structural, entrenched power imbalances between men and women. So wherever we see gender inequalities in our society—and let's be honest, we find them everywhere—we must redouble our efforts to eliminate these inequalities.

We remember the thousands of women who marched on Parliament House and more than 40 other sites around Australia, and we remember the Prime Minister who would not go out to meet them, would not go out to hear their concerns. This, and the way we heard how women were treated in this place, is one of the reasons I decided run for the seat of Boothby. When I campaigned I heard from so many women—women and men, but mostly women—about their terrible experiences. We must redouble our efforts to eliminate these inequalities because they cause real harm. Enough is enough.

Debate adjourned.