Code of conduct recommended for Members of Parliament and staff: Parliament must act
The Human Rights Law Centre today welcomes recommendations by a Parliamentary committee that Members of Parliament, their staff and Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces more broadly, adopt behaviour standards and codes which state that bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, assault and discrimination will not be tolerated, condoned, or ignored.
The final report by the Joint Select Committee on Parliamentary Standards (Committee) includes draft behaviour standards and codes of conduct and recommends that Parliament legislate a range of sanctions for breaches of the codes.
The Committee’s final report addressed key concerns raised by the Human Rights Law Centre, with recommendations including:
An Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission to be composed of multiple members to ensure the commission has the requisite diversity of experience to cover different types of complaints;
Strong sanctions for parliamentarians who are found in serious breach the code, including suspension from the Chamber;
For the codes of conduct to explicitly reference that discrimination based on race, age, sex, sexuality, gender identity, disability or religion, will not be tolerated, condoned or ignored.
The Committee was initiated on the recommendation of Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins in her Set the Standard report, which followed serious allegations of gender-based violence taking place inside Parliament.
Alice Drury, Acting Legal Director of the Human Rights Law Centre:
“The Australian Parliament has been talking about introducing a code of conduct for almost half a century – and today we got significantly closer to realising it. Everyone working in our country’s Parliament should feel safe, and be protected from racism, ableism and gender-based violence.
“Discriminatory abuse in our Parliament makes the whole country less safe. We are grateful to the Committee for their genuine and deep engagement on the issues. We welcome their recommendations, and look forward to federal Parliament taking swift action to realise them.”
Media contacts:
Thomas Feng
Media and Communications Manager
0431 285 275
thomas.feng@hrlc.org.au