Fireworks in the House won’t fix Parliament’s dirty issue
Atrocious, unedifying, shocking, appalling – these were just some of the adjectives used by media and politicians alike for the absolute scenes in Parliament earlier this week, when Speaker Trevor Mallard launched a defence of his $300,000 defamation blunder by going at the subject again, this time protected by parliamentary privilege.
Some of those epithets were directed at National Party members, but mostly, they were for Mallard.
Revelations that a long-running feud between National’s Chris Bishop and the Labour Speaker is partly to blame for making sure this very personal (for the woman who made the twice-investigated sexual assault complaint, and for the man at the centre of it) issue has remained a spitefully political one, does not excuse this sandpit spat one bit.
But the late-night bad behaviour of the members in the House affects only their own reputations (perhaps fatally, we shall see).
By contrast, the bad behaviour exhibited for decades elsewhere in Parliament deeply affects people who have no such profile, access to power, or ability (or avenue) to voice their disgruntlement.
It’s two years this month since Debbie Francis’s Independent External Review into Bullying and Harassment in the New Zealand Parliamentary Workplace made more than 80 detailed recommendations on how to clean up the country’s most powerful cesspit.
The report was exhaustive. Francis and her team talked to, or read written submissions by, hundreds of parliamentary precinct staff, and gathered responses from a thousand more. It held 40 separate focus groups and even managed to corral 55 MPs, ministers and party officials for long enough to get their views.
Although some commentators this week did mention the (mostly women) who told Francis about their experiences of assault and harassment, the focus for the most part remained on the political ramifications.
I was curious about what had happened to those 85 specific recommendations. It’s been two years. What progress has been made?
The Speaker’s Office did not get back to me with any answers (having a bad week?). This is curious not just because of Mallard’s outburst in the House this week, but also because much of the work recommended by the Francis report was laid at the Speaker’s door.
Parliamentary Service was more forthcoming. It told me 53 of the recommendations had been implemented, and work to varying degrees is under way on 18 more.
There is some positive news. Francis recommended anti-bullying and harassment training be developed ‘‘for the entire parliamentary workplace’’. I was told ‘‘this work is programmed to commence after June’’. I take that to mean development has not yet begun, but at least it’s on the radar.
Flexible working conditions have been introduced and are being ‘‘role-modelled’’ by senior staff. At a guess, some of that work might have been accelerated by Covid lockdowns and restrictions. A new HR structure has been implemented. There is now a 24-hour mental health support line, run by an external provider.
The code of conduct, squabbled over between the parties for more than a year and finally released in October, has been signed by all parties and is now a part of employment agreements. If you’re planning to carry a swipe card that gives you access to those hallowed halls of power, you’re going to have to agree to abide by it too.
It’s apposite to note that in Francis’ view, a code of conduct was the absolute basic minimum that should result from her review.
The common thread is that although the behaviour of management and staff is being addressed, from what I can tell, MPs seem exempt, or at least, last in line for training and implementation of this work.
You, the voting public, will be easily able to see the flaw in that. One of the headline revelations of Francis’ close examination of the rotten parts of this workplace was the power imbalance that exists between MPs and their staff. She said MPs were ‘‘treated like gods’’ with a ‘‘master-servant relationship’’, and that there was ‘‘a clear picture of a handful of MPs whose behaviour fitted the definition of bullying and harassment’’.
If the MPs are not modelling respectful behaviour, and fail to be held accountable when they don’t, then the central message of the Francis report – that behaviour change must come from above – is doomed.
Two of the most crucial recommendations in the Francis report are also yet to be implemented. Although staff have the mental health support line mentioned above, there is still no independently-hosted complaints line – called an ‘‘integrity line’’ in the report – where complaints can be made anonymously and reported verbatim to parliamentary agencies.
Francis said it was common that staffers had nowhere, other than police, to report sexual harassment and assault and get support. ‘‘Why would you even bother’’ one told her. The integrity line, Parliamentary Service told me, is till in the procurement phase.
And there’s no sign yet of the most-talked about recommendation; the creation of an Independent Commission for Parliamentary Conduct, led by an experienced commissioner, and dedicated to receiving complaints about the conduct of MPs.
Francis described this as ‘‘critical’’ for two reasons – because staff don’t trust MPs or their parties to handle these complaints, and because they don’t see MPs being held accountable for their behaviour. Discussions are ‘‘ongoing’’ on that critical piece of the puzzle.
On Friday morning the newish Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence, Marama Davidson, told media she had already seen the antics of Mallard and co in the House this week directly undermine any attempts to address that.
‘‘People are feeling, because of that debacle, that they wouldn’t be confident in coming forward if any violence or assault incidents were to happen in the workplace because of what has played out.
‘‘Because they don’t feel that they would be taken seriously, that they will be mocked in the debating chamber by people with the massive privileged positions.’’
Two years after the wake-up call the Francis report promised to deliver, it seems some of the most powerful people in politics still don’t get it.