Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of the Australian Greens to indicate that we will be supporting these government amendments. They're all of a technical nature. I particularly welcome item 1, which extends the positive duty obligations on an employer to address improper and harassing behaviour by customers or clients or contractors. That's a very meaningful extension and a very important one.

In relation to item 5, as I mentioned earlier, we're really pleased that the government has dropped their proposed cost changes. There was real concern that this would have put barriers in the way of people accessing and enforcing these new rights, and we very much welcome the agreement that the government reached with the Greens to look more closely at these issues and, indeed, to look at potentially making access to justice more accessible for all protected attributes not just for harassment on the grounds of gender. That's why we won't be moving the joint amendment between the Greens and the Jacqui Lambie Network on sheet 1700 today—because the government has now dropped their cost provisions and has agreed to expedite a review to, ideally, come to an approach where, if a complainant is successful, they can get the cost awarded, but, if they're not successful, they don't face that risk of having to pay their employer's legal costs. That's the ideal scenario that many experts have pushed for, and that's what we hope will be found in the review. Of course, we'll come back to this chamber and, ideally, legislate those stronger provisions in due course.