A damning report into federal parliamentary workplaces has found 40 per cent of women have experienced sexual harassment at work, with Australia\u2019s sex discrimination commissioner recommending sweeping changes to how alcohol, complaints and behaviour issues are dealt with in politics.<\/p>\n
Nearly two-thirds of female politicians have been harassed.<\/p>\n
Women working in politics recounted stories that included being kissed against their will, ogled at work, belittled, and subjected to a \u201cchauvinist\u201d atmosphere in Parliament House.<\/p>\n
Former prime minister Julia Gillard said the report, made public on Tuesday, proved \u201cit\u2019s time to change our federal parliament forever\u201d.<\/p>\n
The landmark\u00a0\u2018Set The Standard\u2019 report\u00a0from Kate Jenkins and the Australian Human Rights Commission, prompted by sexual assault and misconduct allegations made by former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins and other women in politics, found an environment of sexism and mistreatment in the halls of power.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do often describe Parliament House as the most sexist place I\u2019ve worked,\u201d one respondent to the inquiry said.<\/p>\n
In a statement via the Global Institute for Women\u2019s Leadership at the Australian National University, Ms Higgins said hoped the Jenkins report \u201cinspired immediate action\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to thank the many brave people who shared their stories which contributed to this review. I hope all sides of politics not only commit to but implement these recommendations in full,\u201d Ms Higgins said.<\/p>\n
In the same statement, Ms Gillard \u2013 who established the GIWL \u2013 called on parliament to change \u201cforever\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need a code of conduct and an effective way of receiving and acting on complaints. The Jenkins review gives us this,\u201d Ms Gillard said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need all political parties to work together with urgency and ambition and commit to deliver the bold reforms that are needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Jenkins\u2019 report sets out 28 recommendations, including that political party leaders make a statement in parliament acknowledging problems of harassment and assault, and commit to accountability and action.<\/p>\n
Other recommendations include setting stronger targets for diversity among staff and politicians, expanding support and complaint services for staff, creating an Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission.<\/p>\n
The report also recommends overhauling procedures in the parliamentary chambers, to eliminate sexist and discriminatory language and behaviour among politicians, as well as developing strict codes of conduct for parliamentarians.<\/p>\n
Mr Morrison acknowledged \u201cdeficiencies\u201d in standards of parliament and politics. He said there was a culture of working long and hard in Parliament House, but that should not excuse the behaviour detailed in the report.<\/p>\n
That \u201c\u2018work hard, play hard\u201d culture is also analysed in the report, with Ms Jenkins examining how parliamentary staff \u2013 often young people who regularly travel long distances from home and work extreme hours \u2013 are exposed to alcohol and stress. Other recommendations include reviewing the parliament calendar and sitting hours \u201cwith a view to enhancing wellbeing\u201d, as well as overhauling policies on alcohol standards and availability in politics.<\/p>\n
Numerous submissions to the review directly talk about how alcohol pervades socialising and even work hours in politics.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was normal to tell people that they should avoid certain people at events. I thought it was normal to tell people how to take alcohol to remain safe. Now that I look back on it, that is insane,\u201d one person said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMembers of parliament have gone onto the floor of parliament to vote under the influence of alcohol \u2013 something that would be illegal in most workplaces,\u201d said another.<\/p>\n
One person told the review about people becoming \u201cdrunk on free booze\u201d in politicians\u2019 offices on sitting weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got this room of 20-year-olds with a 60-year-old man \u2026 plying them all with alcohol in an enclosed room, in a professional office building. It\u2019s not a recipe for good professional behaviour,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A damning report into federal parliamentary workplaces has found 40 per cent of women have experienced sexual harassment at work, with Australia\u2019s sex discrimination commissioner recommending sweeping changes to how alcohol, complaints and behaviour issues are dealt with in politics. Nearly two-thirds of female politicians have been harassed. Women working in politics recounted stories that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3921,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,69,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-breaking-news","category-incident"],"views":86,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3919"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3919"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3922,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3919\/revisions\/3922"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}