SEXUAL harassment is unacceptable, whether in the workplace or elsewhere. Everyone has the right to feel safe at work.
That is why I’m pleased the Australian Government commissioned a landmark National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces.
We are acting quickly to strengthen the national anti-discrimination frameworks by enhancing protections against sex-based discrimination and harassment in the workplace. This brings protections to individuals in any workplace and that’s why it is important.
The Respect@Work Bill, which passed both houses of parliament this week, legislates reforms committed to by the government in its Roadmap for Respect.
This Bill implements a number of the recommendations in the Respect@Work report. It focuses on changes that can be achieved quickly and that will bring the greatest improvements in workplaces.
Recommendations that are not included in this Bill are still under active consideration by the government.
I am pleased that the Bill also amends entitlements to compassionate leave to allow employees to take up to two days of paid leave if they experience a miscarriage. Miscarriage is a silent grief that is often not acknowledged, so I am very pleased with this change.
The government has agreed to or noted all 55 recommendations of the Respect@Work Report. We have not rejected any recommendations, as the Labor Party and the unions would have you believe.
Only 15 of the 55 recommendations contained in the report proposed specific amendments to federal legislation. Many of the remaining recommendations were directed to state and territory governments, independent agencies, regulators, and the private sector, recognising a whole-of-community approach is required for real change.
We are taking swift action through the Respect@Work Bill and we are working on the remaining recommendations that require elaborate and considered design.
We are getting this right, and we refuse to do it Labor’s way. Labor’s proposed amendments to the Bill were framed to centralise power in the hands of unions and litigation funders that would have smashed small businesses, who are already vulnerable in this time.
Further impositions on small businesses are not what we need right now, and not in anyone’s best interests. We need considered reforms that are in line with the Respect@Work report to stamp out sexual harassment in the workplace.
