Wednesday, 8 June 2022

Motions

Parliament of Victoria workplace safety

Ms MAXWELL (Northern Victoria) (11:48): I rise to speak on my motion 729, and I move:

That this house:

(1) acknowledges the unacceptable history of bullying and harassment in workplaces;

(2) understands the important role the Victorian Parliament can play as an exemplar of best practice in the prevention and response to bullying, sexual harassment and sexual assault in workplaces;

(3) recognises that the Victorian Parliament is a workplace for members of Parliament, electorate officers, parliamentary advisers, ministerial staff, parliamentary officers and precinct employees and contractors;

(4) directs the Presiding Officers to jointly write to the Victorian equal opportunity and human rights commissioner requesting that the commission inquire into and report to the Presiding Officers on:

(a) the adequacy of existing laws, policies, structures and complaint mechanisms relating to bullying and harassment in the Victorian Parliament;

(b) improvements that may be made to existing laws, policies, structures and complaint mechanisms relating to bullying and harassment in the Victorian Parliament;

(c) whether an independent complaints body should be established to provide a mechanism to manage and respond to complaints about bullying and harassment within the Victorian Parliament, in the context of a confidential and supportive environment;

(5) requires the commissioner to commence such an inquiry by consulting with the following employers affected by these terms of reference:

(a) Presiding Officers;

(b) Clerk of the Legislative Assembly;

(c) Clerk of the Legislative Council;

(d) Secretary of the Department of Parliamentary Services;

(e) Parliamentary Budget Officer;

(f) executive government;

(g) any other relevant employers identified by the commissioner;

(6) requires the Presiding Officers to table the report in both houses of Parliament;

and requests the agreement of the Legislative Assembly to the terms of this resolution.

Hopefully I can get through this prior to question time. As a place of high importance, as a place of high office, parliaments are expected to be a place of best practice and high standards. Unfortunately the reality is that sometimes it is quite the opposite, reflected in the poor public perception of politicians. This extends to a perception, and sometimes the sad reality, of bullying and harassment being prevalent within the parliamentary workplace. By and large, people conduct themselves respectfully within the context of the robust and diverse exchange of ideas that is our vibrant democracy, and that is integral to parliamentary and political processes. We know our positions are a great privilege and honour, so many of us in the parliamentary workplace are heavily invested in serving our communities as part of our role, whatever that is, within this Parliament.

The parliamentary workplace is certainly unique, with a diversity of employment settings, including members, electorate and parliamentary staff, ministerial staff, parliamentary officers, precinct employees and contractors. These roles are covered by multiple working arrangements and enterprise agreements, and there is a complex intersection of roles and power. It is also a workplace that can include a lot of pressure, long hours and complex issues, interactions and negotiations. At a very basic level, safe and respectful workplaces help attract and retain the best people, drive performance and manage reputational and legal risk. This is essential to public confidence.

At its most serious level we need to ensure that people within our workplaces are safe and that when that safety is breached there are appropriate mechanisms for support. The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission is an established and funded independent agency that conducts reviews and investigations into a range of settings. VEOHRC could be well positioned to conduct an independent review of matters relating to bullying and harassment within the parliamentary workplace and recommend improvements. A review of the parliamentary workplace should be conducted with the bipartisan support of the government, the opposition and the crossbench in a spirit that takes the important opportunity to review and improve our workplace rather than focusing on individual allegations. In making this point I am not saying that those individual allegations are not important, but there does not seem to be a structure in place for these to be managed.

It is in the spirit of this bipartisan support that this motion directs the Presiding Officers to jointly write to the Victorian equal opportunity and human rights commissioner to request that the commission inquire into and report on the adequacy of existing laws, policies, structures and complaint mechanisms relating to bullying and harassment in the Victorian Parliament. The commission would also be asked to report on any improvements that may be made and whether an independent complaints body should be established to provide a mechanism to manage and respond to complaints about bullying and harassment.

A similar review was conducted with respect to the federal parliamentary workplace, led by the Australian Human Rights Commission, and another on the South Australian parliamentary workplace. The South Australian review found that complaint-handling procedures in the parliamentary workplace were almost non-existent and inconsistent with modern workplace standards. We are probably dreaming to think that our situation is really dissimilar. The South Australian report noted:

… that political institutions are far from immune from unacceptable, unlawful behaviours—

but are—

… the places that can and should lead change …

The same was said of the federal review, with the covering page of the Jenkins report containing a quote from one of the contributors:

This is Parliament. It should set the standard for workplace culture, not the floor of what culture should be.

The federal independent review into commonwealth parliament workplaces was initiated in 2021 after very serious public allegations of sexual assault but also in the context of a broad shift in our community expectations around equality, safety and respect. Engagement in the federal review was very encouraging and demonstrated that people very clearly wanted to share their views. The review survey was responded to by almost a quarter of people working in commonwealth parliamentary workplaces, and the final report provided a pathway through a proposed framework for action, including 28 recommendations.

When our now Prime Minister spoke on the report in February this year, Anthony Albanese said:

No-one deserves to feel unsafe or disrespected in any workplace, let alone our national parliament.

He said:

… we cannot ask the people we represent to make change without also making real and lasting change in this very building …

and that they needed to be:

… the example … that the … parliament ought to be.

That should ring as true for our Victorian Parliament as it does for our federal one. We should not baulk at doing this, and I would hope that, rather than this being used for political points or punches, it is used as an opportunity to initiate some protections for those who work here now and into the future. Nobody is perfect, and this process may require us all to consider carefully how we act and react in different circumstances and what we can do better. When it comes to bullying and harassment, this can be only a good thing.

This motion requires passage through the Legislative Council as part of the non-government business program and then support from the Legislative Assembly before the Presiding Officers write to the commissioner to initiate this review and report back to the Parliament. I hope the support of this chamber will commence this process and that the agreement of the Legislative Assembly will then follow. Our country is going through a time of reckoning in how we respond to bullying and harassment. We cannot make improvements if we do not shine the light. I hope this provides an opportunity to reset, to review in a safe, trauma-informed way what is in place now and what is missing and to determine what we can do to make parliamentary workplaces safe for everyone. I thank the house.

Ms TAYLOR (Southern Metropolitan) (11:55): I think it is very important to acknowledge first and foremost that our Andrews Labor government takes bullying, harassment and the treatment of women very seriously. Neither bullying nor harassment are acceptable, and they have no place in any workplace. Let me be very, very clear about that. We know that Victorian employers face serious consequences under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 if they fail to provide a safe working environment. We are also undertaking a massive program of reform in the workplace safety portfolio to better prevent gendered violence and sexual harassment in the workplace. Last year the Minister for Workplace Safety, along with the Acting Premier and the Minister for Women, announced that the Victorian government is developing a workplace sexual harassment reform agenda in Victoria which aims to put an end to sexual harassment in Victorian workplaces.

I want to unpack certain elements of this motion, and I thank Ms Maxwell for bringing it to the chamber. The second point goes to the issue of understanding:

… the important role the Victorian Parliament can play as an exemplar of best practice in the prevention and response to bullying, sexual harassment and sexual assault in workplaces …

To address that point, outdated notions of Parliament and MPs being exempt from basic standards which are expected in every other workplace definitively belong in the past. The public is entitled to expect the highest standards from their elected representatives; that goes without saying. There are basic standards of decency, respect and safety that the public now expect parliamentarians to adhere to. The Presiding Officers are to be commended for their leadership, and I will speak further to that point shortly. We can say that they are very much leading the way and taking definitive action in this space, because obviously we are in a contemporary society where attitudes about the behaviour and demeanour of everyone—and we are not excluded from that domain—mean that there are certain standards that simply have to be met, and it is in the best interests of all of us to reflect the broader community. Also for young children, teenagers and the like who are looking to the future and thinking about what employment they will undertake, we want to give them confidence that this is a good workplace—just the same as any other workplace—where their rights are respected by everyone, regardless of gender or otherwise.

A further point that I will speak to is with regard to the third element of this motion, which:

recognises that the Victorian Parliament is a workplace for members of Parliament—

it is indeed a workplace—

electorate officers, parliamentary advisers, ministerial staff, parliamentary officers and precinct employees and contractors …

Yes, absolutely, it is a workplace. To speak to that particular point, staff working with MPs have every right to expect safe workplaces that are free of bullying and harassment, sexual assault and victimisation. I do not think there is anything particularly novel in that. I think that is basic and decent and should be required. When members of Parliament fail to meet those standards, there should be transparent and independent processes in place to address inappropriate behaviour.

Coming back to the point that I referred to a little earlier with regard to the Presiding Officers, I would like to commend the leadership of the Presiding Officers and the cross-party working group for developing and proposing an independent process to resolve complaints about inappropriate behaviour by members of Parliament. That is absolutely to be commended, and we can see that there are significant initiatives well underway.

Business interrupted pursuant to sessional orders.