Prime Minister
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Can I thank you for your Statement of Acknowledgement. You were elected in this place to be the voice of all of us here, and I thank you for speaking on behalf of all of us with one voice today here in this Parliament, and I hope that voice is heard loud and clear right across our country, as indeed it will be in the other place.
I rise to enthusiastically support this Acknowledgement, and to recognise all of those who are why we’re here today in making this Acknowledgement. And I particularly want to acknowledge Ms Brittany Higgins, whose experience and, more importantly, courage, is the reason why we are all here today, and I want to thank her for that.
I also want to recognise all of those who have contributed to the Jenkins Review. Some 1,700 individuals contributed. 935 participated in surveys from right across this building, not just in Parliamentary staff, media galleries, those who work and call this place their place of work. 490 interviews were conducted. Eleven focus groups were undertaken.
This Review speaks of a longstanding culture, generations of culture, in this place and in the building before it, of bullying and harassment that has occurred over this time. And a power imbalance over that time that has been exploited. And that exploitation, abuse, bullying and harassment has played itself out through terrible, traumatic and harrowing experiences. The harassment of staff, particularly female staff, as well as the harassment of female members and senators.
Over many decades, an ecosystem, a culture, was perpetuated where bullying, abuse, harassment, and in some cases even violence, became normalised.
This has to change. It is changing. And I believe it will change. So those who can come into this place as members, those who come to work in this place, can have that confidence, as every Australian should in any workplace anywhere in this country, as these issues are not unique to this place, as we all know.
Parliament can’t be a place of cruelty. Nor can it be a place where incivility towards each other is somehow proof of some strength.
This Chamber and this building is a place where ideas are tested, a place where the rigors of debate hold Government and lawmakers to account. And that’s appropriate. And it is a place of scrutiny, and never before do I think this place has been under such scrutiny when it comes to these issues, and that is only right.
It must also be a place, as the Speaker has said on our behalf, of the highest standards. A place where any Australian can aspire to work, and know they can work safely.
And as one participant in the Jenkins Review put it: “A culture which is all about power … doesn’t mean it has to be a culture which is about abuse of power.”
Power is about service, and should be exercised with humility and love, as we were reminded this morning at the church service that opened this year.
Commissioner Kate Jenkins has laid the challenge out before us, and I thank Commissioner Jenkins for her tremendous work and counsel on all of these issues. She said: “This is an opportunity for the leaders of our country to transform Commonwealth Parliamentary workplaces to become what they already should be: workplaces where expected standards of behaviour are modelled, championed and enforced, [and] where respectful behaviour is rewarded and in which any Australian, no matter [of] their gender, race, sexual orientation, disability status or age, feels safe and welcome to contribute.”
That is our task. She has set it out very clearly. We must hold ourselves to this standard. All of us.
I hesitate in calling it a new standard because it suggests somehow it shouldn’t have been previously. This is a standard that should be outside of time, because by taking an oath or affirmation at this very table, it means you are a leader, whatever role in which you serve, and you owe just and best judgment to the highest efforts, to the Australian people.
Mr Speaker, we’ve understood in this place the power of an apology to bring healing and to bring change. And I’m proud that this is a Chamber in which we have done this on so many occasions, and I believe Australia is somewhat unique in this regard.
We don’t shy [from, or seek to] silence, the valid and just complaints of people because there was fear about electoral consequences.
I am sorry. We are sorry. I’m sorry to Ms Higgins for the terrible things that took place here. And the place that should have been a place of safety and contribution turned out to be a nightmare. But I am sorry for far more than that - for all of those who came before Ms Higgins and endured the same. But she had the courage to stand, and so here we are.
So we are sorry for all of these things. And in doing so, each of us take an accountability for changing these things.
And to those who have perpetuated such bullying, abuse and violence, the light will come to those behaviours, as it must, but it will follow and respect our rule of law in this country. It will proceed on the basis of fairness and justice, in accordance for the rules of others that are in place in our country, and it will be done in the proper way, which I’m sure all in this place would agree.
Justice should come and it should always be delivered under the rule of law.
Mr Speaker, every single Australian has the right to be safe at work. And yet it is clear that practical and cultural changes are necessary to make our Parliamentary workplaces safer.
This Acknowledgement is a marker, yet another step. A moment of change. A commitment as Parliamentarians, each and every one of us, wearing no partisan hat, but here as Parliamentarians, employers, and as colleagues to change this culture in this ecosystem, and a determination to make this building and its many subsidiaries a place of heart and soul into the future.
A place that embodies in every form the values, hopes and aspirations of the Australian people. A place of heart and soul, where our humanity is not lost, diminished or harmed, because of what is the adversarial nature of our political system.
Sorry is only the start. That is our promise to those who are here today and those watching across Australia. For those of us who are here now, we know we have that opportunity, and we must, and we can, and we will do better.
I am determined that we deliver the outcomes of the Jenkins Review and make our Commonwealth Parliamentary workplaces safer and respectful for everyone.
The Parliament has, as you said Mr Speaker, already commenced that work, even before the Jenkins Review was handed down, and we are working together towards the implementation of all 28 recommendations. This past week, the multi-party Leadership Taskforce convened for the first time, chaired by Ms Kerri Hartland.
Whether it is this Acknowledgement today or the laws that will be introduced into Parliament this week, we are working to change this place for the better together.
We have extended the funding for the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service so work can commence on its expansion and so it can continue to be made available to staff and Parliamentarians, alongside extra funding for the Parliamentary Support Line.
I want this building to be a place where young Australians - and young women, in particular - can follow their dreams and can live out their beliefs, and not have them crushed by brutality and the misuse of power.
That’s what I’m dedicated to. We will come back to this work many, many times in the years ahead because this work will take many years. It will be ongoing.
But we must not backslide. We owe it to all of those who work in this building. We owe it to all of those who strive to work in this building in the future, and we owe it to the Australian people who we all have the good grace and great privilege to serve.