On behalf of the Standing Committee on Procedure, I present the committee's report entitled Inquiry into disrespectful behaviour towards other members in the chamber, together with minutes of the proceedings.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

As chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Procedure, I'm pleased to present the committee's report into disrespectful behaviour chamber.

This inquiry sits within a broader body of work undertaken by the parliament in recent years to strengthen the culture of Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces and to ensure that our workplaces reflect the values Australians rightly expect of us: integrity, dignity, safety and mutual respect.

The committee's work builds on reforms arising from the Set the Standard review and the subsequent adoption of the Behaviour Standards for Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces and the Behaviour Code for Australian Parliamentarians.

The Australian parliament has made significant progress. However, as this inquiry demonstrates, cultural change is not a project with a defined beginning and end. It's an ongoing responsibility that requires continual reinforcement, reflection and action from all of us.

The House of Representatives chamber occupies a unique place in our democracy. It is where governments are held to account, public policy is contested and representatives advocate passionately on behalf of their communities.

The committee heard consistently that robust debate and freedom of speech are fundamental to the operation of our parliamentary democracy. At the same time, the committee also heard clear evidence that many members continue to experience behaviour they regard as disrespectful, intimidating or unnecessarily aggressive.

The committee was reminded that behaviour in this chamber does not stay within these walls. It shapes public perceptions of our parliament and contributes to the culture of our workplaces more broadly. Australians are entitled to expect respectful conduct from their elected representatives.

A central question raised during the report concerned the application of the Behaviour Code for Australian Parliamentarians within the chamber. The committee examined whether changes to the standing orders were required and considered evidence from members, parliamentary officials, the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service, and representatives of other Australian and international parliaments.

The committee reached a clear conclusion: the code already applies to conduct in the chamber. The chamber forms part of a Commonwealth parliamentary workplace, and the code was adopted by the House as a continuing resolution and incorporated into the standing and sessional orders.

The question before the committee was therefore not whether the code applies, but how it operates alongside parliamentary privilege, standing orders and established parliamentary practice.

Importantly, the committee does not believe that vigorous debate and respectful conduct are competing principles. Rather, they are complementary. Members can advance strongly held views, disagree passionately and robustly contest ideas while still treating one another with dignity, courtesy, fairness and respect.

The committee heard differing views about whether standing orders should be amended to address disrespectful behaviour. After careful consideration, the committee concluded that the existing standing orders already provide a robust framework for maintaining order and addressing inappropriate conduct.

The committee was concerned that overly prescriptive amendments could have unintended consequences and potentially limit the discretion of the chair. Instead, the committee focused on measures to improve understanding, consistency and confidence in the application of existing parliamentary arrangements.

Accordingly, the report contains six recommendations.

Together they are designed to strengthen understanding of expected standards of conduct and support cultural change. The committee recommendations are to:

(1) Expand Safe and Respectful Workplaces training to explicitly address behaviour and communication in the chamber.

(2) Introduce refresher training for members in each new parliament.

(3) Provide additional support and education for newly elected members.

(4) Develop clear guidance on how the behaviour code operates and is applied in the chamber.

(5) Deliver targeted training for members of the Speaker's panel, including strategies to identify and respond to disrespectful behaviour and de-escalate tensions during proceedings.

(6) Publish declarations of refresher training completion to support transparency and accountability.

These recommendations are intended to complement, not replace, established parliamentary practice. They seek to promote a shared understanding both of members' rights and their responsibilities.

I wish to place on record my sincere thanks to all those who contributed to the inquiry, including members from across the House, parliamentary officials, the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service and representatives of Australian and international parliaments who generously shared their experiences and expertise.

I also thank my deputy chair, the member for Forrest, my fellow committee members and the committee secretariat for their professionalism, diligence and collaborative approach throughout this inquiry.

Respectful conduct and robust debate are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, they are essential to the effective functioning of our democracy. The committee's recommendations are intended to support a parliament in which vigorous disagreement can occur without diminishing the dignity of those who serve within it. In doing so, they seek to strengthen public confidence in the institution we are all privileged to serve.

On behalf of the committee, I commend the report to the House.

As we enter the second week of a double-header, there's no doubt some mischief ahead for you to manage, Mr Speaker, as we go about the business of governing this nation. It was important that, for coalition members of the committee as we approached this inquiry, one thing was central and non-negotiable, and that was that robust debate is good for democracy. Ultimately, freedom of speech transforms good ideas to great ideas through robust debate while bad ideas founder under the weight of reason. We believe that every member of this place comes here with different interests, different views and different values but with one common goal, and that's to see Australia be a stronger and more prosperous nation. That is a good thing indeed. We also know that Australians expect their representatives to behave in this place in a respectful manner, so we had to balance that with the right to speak passionately in this place because, when it comes to contemporary issues, like Labor's budget of broken promises or indeed the cap on veteran funding, the people who sent us here expect nothing less. The member for Riverina's contribution last week was a perfect example of debate with vim and vigour in this House.

So, whilst the parliament must remain a forum for the free exchange of ideas and the scrutiny of government, the democratic principles of good governance and accountability cannot be diminished, but the need to uphold the standards which the chair of the committee, the Deputy Speaker, beautifully articulated just now is an absolute imperative at the same time. The House recently afforded the Speaker the option of directing a member to leave the chamber for up to three hours, for example. This, of course, has been used very sparingly by you, Mr Speaker, and I've been one of the infamous few to give you that opportunity to demonstrate the full flexibility of the standing orders.

The committee recognises in this report that the best form of meaningful behavioural change in the House is through education. The suggestion to extend the education of House processes and procedures through the PWSS and the Speaker's panel is a welcome inclusion. These recommendations recognise that education is and should be an ongoing requirement for members of this place, regardless of the experience they bring here, because continued education on behaviour and respect ultimately lead to higher standards. There does seem to be some confusion amongst members and staff as to how the behaviour code applies in the chamber and out of it across Commonwealth workplaces. That's why further education is so important to clarify, in the minds of all of those who come here to do the business of the nation, the way in which that code applies. For a responsible and respectful workplace, it is incumbent on us all to train people, to set expectations and to reinforce them, holding those individuals to account for their own conduct.

What isn't fair is to punish or reprimand an entire workplace because of the actions of any single person. And, indeed, we did see a submission to the committee that would demand that of this House. The member for Warringah, in her submission, suggested that there should be the power to sanction groups of members, political parties or even party leaders. Ultimately, it wasn't supported by the committee, because it would betray that fundamental principle. It simply isn't fair to punish a cohort because of the actions of one person. Of course, we saw an example of that just last week, when the member for Mackellar was removed from the House for an hour. Yet, under that suggestion of collective punishment, we could have seen the Speaker remove the entire crossbench. Imagine the outrage that would have followed. Punishing Australians by removing their representatives that they sent to this place to fight for them is a serious move indeed. That's why we believe that the standing orders do give the Speaker and the members of the Speaker's panel sufficient flexibility within the standing orders to manage behaviour. Rather than rewriting those rules, this report does rightly focus on the training and guidance and accountability aspects of managing behaviour, and it has reaffirmed that strong political disagreement and respectful conduct can co-exist.

I do want to recognise the stewardship provided to the committee by the chair—the Deputy Speaker—and the collegiate engagement from the committee members across the aisle in coming together and presenting to the parliament a bipartisan report. It really has been a pleasure to undertake this body of work together with those committee members, and I join the chair in commending the report to the House.

The time allotted for statements on this report has expired.

I move:

That the House take note of the report.

In accordance with standing order 39, the debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.