Aussie MPs, govt servants no longer exempt from sexual harassment rules
Politicians will no longer be exempt from rules against sexual harassment at work, the conservative government announced yesterday as it tries to quell public anger over parliamentary sex abuse scandals.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his government would overhaul sexual discrimination laws to make members of parliament (MPs), judges and public servants accountable for harassing colleagues in the workplace.
“It’s about getting everyone on as much of a playing field as possible.”
MPs, judges and public servants are currently exempt from anti-harassment rules that apply to other
Australian workplaces, though they can still face criminal prosecution for sexual assault.
The move was in re- sponse to a
“Respect@Work” report — handed down more than a year ago following a national inquiry into sexual harassment — and comes just weeks after sexual abuse allegations rocked Australia’s halls of power.
A young ex-staffer in Morrison’s Liberal Party recently went public with allegations she was raped by a colleague in Parliament in 2019, while a senior minister had denied raping a 16-year-old when they were students in the 1980s.
Critics said the cases and the government’s apparent initial reluctance to act had highlighted a “toxic” and sexist culture in Australia’s Parliament.
Attorney-General Michaelia Cash, who replaced the rape-accused minister in the government’s top legal role last week, said other proposed legislative changes included classifying sexual harassment at work as “serious misconduct” and making it valid grounds for dismissal.
The government planned to extend the period in which a victim could report an incident from six months to two years, she said.