Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday, Scott Morrison sent women and survivors of sexual assault in Australia a damning message. He sent them a message that he simply doesn't care. Yesterday the Prime Minister appointed Minister Porter, a man around whom allegations of horrific behaviour have swirled, to one of the highest positions of power, Acting Leader of the House of Representatives. This was a stunning move by Scott Morrison, our Prime Minister.

Minister Porter is a man who had the Respect@Work report on his desk for over a year, and he did nothing—nothing!—to address the report's very serious revelations that women are not safe in their workplaces and its recommendations on how the government must act to rectify this. Minister Porter simply sat on this report. Minister Porter never even opened the Respect@Work report. It took a slew of sexual assault allegations in this place, and a reshuffle that sent Porter out of the Attorney-General's portfolio, to even get the government to open the report.

At a time when the Prime Minister is out spraying the media with his so-called support for women and sexual assault survivors, the very least he could do would be to allow an independent inquiry into the allegations against Minister Porter. But he's quashed it instead. The Prime Minister, when he stands up in this place, should be setting a standard. The standard he is setting is that women and sexual assault survivors won't be listened to until it's by force. As Grace Tame wrote, Minister Porter's circumstances are 'steeped in the protective privileges of a patriarchal parliament'. This is not a standard that Labor is willing to accept. (Time expired)