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

The government will be opposing this amendment. The government doesn't support making amendments from the respect at work act of last year retrospective in operation. The respect at work act of 2021 repealed section 13 of the Sex Discrimination Act to ensure that state and territory employees were able to make complaints of sex discrimination and sexual harassment under the Commonwealth Sex Discrimination Act. The amendments to section 13 last year did not apply retrospectively because they created a new form of liability that didn't previously exist. Retrospective operation is only appropriate in very limited circumstances. That's a longstanding principle. Each state and territory has antidiscrimination laws prohibiting sexual harassment and sex discrimination, providing an avenue for state and territory employees to make a complaint for conduct that occurred prior to the amendments at the Commonwealth level last year.

Question negatived.