Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

The government will not be accepting the amendments circulated by Senator Waters in relation to these provisions. Comprehensive reasons for the government's position were given in the House, and I would refer people to those reasons for more detail. But in brief, the government considers the hostile work environment amendments as not necessary, as substantial contribution to the creation or maintenance of a hostile work environment would already be covered by what it means to subject someone to a hostile work environment. The amendments would also broaden the protected attributes that would be covered by the prohibition on hostile work environments, and this is beyond the scope of what was recommended by the Respect@Work report and beyond the scope of this bill. This bill is really about delivering the Respect@Work report recommendations, and that's what we're doing. But we're not going beyond that, which is what this amendment seeks to do.

The amendment on positive duty matters to be taken into account would add two further factors to be considered by the Human Rights Commission when determining whether someone has complied with the positive duty. These amendments are not necessary. The commission's guidelines would inform their assessment of compliance with the positive duty. It's not necessary to legislate for this.

Finally, the amendment put forward in relation to publication of positive duty compliance notices would provide the President of the Human Rights Commission with the power to publish a compliance notice on the commission's website. This amendment is not supported, as it may be counterproductive to the objective of achieving compliance with the positive duty. As I said, comprehensive reasons were provided for the government's position in opposing these amendments, but that just sums it up very much in brief.