When it comes to leadership, Federal Parliament is certainly not the pin-up poster for Australian workplaces on of gender equality.
Australia’s sex discrimination commissioner, Kate Jenkins, yesterday handed down a landmark report, titled Set The Standard, which recommends a significant overhaul of federal parliament’s “toxic” workplace.
The Jenkins inquiry into parliament’s workplace culture follows a seven month engagement process with 1,723 current and former staff and parliamentarians from across all parliamentary workplaces. It was triggered after former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins alleged she was raped in a ministerial office in March 2019. Higgins’ allegations are the subject of separate criminal proceedings.
The review found gender inequality in the political ecosystem was a key driver of bullying, sexual harassment and sexual assault within commonwealth parliamentary workplaces.
Women in particular experienced sexual harassment, attempted sexual assault and workplace bullying at higher rates than men.
During the interview process for the report, the Commission was also told that ‘[t]his is Parliament. It should set the standard for workplace culture, not the floor of what culture should be’.
That comment alone is so powerful that the Set The Standard report features it three times, and once as it’s opening thought to ponder.
The report sets out five key shifts required to ensure safe and respectful work environments in Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces.
As it stands, the Workplace Gender Equality Act is currently under review and these recommendations are likely to add weight to the push for greater gender diversity and inclusion policies, reporting mechanisms and actions across corporate Australia. Basically this means a lot more compliance is on its way.
Here’s the five key shifts, the second of which is already closely aligned to what’s being considered as part of the Act review.
1. Leadership: Strengthening institutional and individual leadership to ensure a safe and respectful work environment, including a joint Statement of Acknowledgement that owns and accepts the problem and demonstrates a commitment to action and shared accountability.
2. Diversity, equality and inclusion: Specific strategies, including targets, to increase gender equality, diversity and inclusion amongst parliamentarians and their staff, and regular measurement and public reporting to monitor progress.
3. Systems to support performance: Establishing a centralised Office for Staffing and Culture to support parliamentarians and their staff that has the authority to set and enforce standardised HR policies and processes.
4. Standards, reporting and accountability: Establishing an Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission to provide safe and supported reporting options and oversee and enforce Codes of Conduct to hold people to account for misconduct through sanctions.
5. Safety and wellbeing: A proactive focus on safety and wellbeing to mitigate the risk factors for misconduct, including a holistic health and wellbeing service and alcohol policies, with a view to restricting access in line with harm minimisation and safety.
The cost of getting culture wrong for an organisation from a bullying, sexual harassment or assault point of view is significant.
A Deloitte Access Economics report completed for the federal Department of the Treasury in 2019 (as part Respect@Work) provided a ‘conservative estimate’ that workplace sexual harassment cost the Australian economy $3.8 billion in 2018.
Lost productivity was by far the biggest cost, estimated at $2.6 billion, or $1,053 on average per victim.
Where we are likely to go from here will depend on how quickly Parliament adopts some or all of the recommendations, but one thing is for certain, there is no going back for organisations or Parliament. Action is a must.
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