After Human Rights Commission's Respect@Work report, equality and workplace rights for women are eroding

Australia is the world's 13^th largest economy and, excluding tax haven nations, has the world's seventh highest per-capita GDP. Yet our gender gap is considerably wider than nations like Rwanda, Nicaragua, and Zimbabwe, which are rarely thought of as torchbearers for equality.

Similar English-speaking political economies are all outperforming Australia, Britain in 23^rd place, Canada is 24^th and the US in 30^th place. While our closest neighbour- in language, culture and proximity to Australia - New Zealand, sits in fourth place.

Australia is not moving ahead, but rather falling behind in gender equality. Current legislation tackling workplace gender inequality is ineffective.

While the federal government-established Workplace Gender Equality Agency points to a significant pay gap between men and women, there seems to be little political will, or action, to address its concerns.

This was also found by the Australian Human Rights Commission's 2020 Respect@Work: National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces report, which asserted that more effective and efficient legislation is needed to address issues of sexual harassment against women in the workplace.

I was personally prompted to take an interest in this topic after someone I know complained of repeated instances of harassment and discrimination in their workplace.

When she attempted to seek support within the organisation, no action was taken; so she indicated her desire to take the matter with the Fair Work Commission, and quickly found herself facing an adversarial employer. Whilst many colleagues were privately supportive, they feared expressing that support to senior management would have been a "career-limiting" move.

Ultimately, she did not seek recourse through the laws or statutory bodies set up to protect workplace rights. Instead, she simply resigned, which allowed her to leave her employment with her career and reputation intact.

Had she relied on her legislated rights to pursue the matter it would have caused considerable stress and, no matter the outcome, this troubling episode would follow her throughout the rest of her career.

In theory, there are workplace laws and tribunals in place to protect the rights of women in the workplace. In reality, the financial, emotional, and reputational price for seeking recourse through these avenues is too high. Even a win can, more often than not, be a Pyrrhic victory.

In the Respect@Work it was reported that since the introduction of the Sex Discrimination Act, improvements on such matters have been slow and outdated. Commissioner Kate Jenkins said, "the current legal and regulatory system is simply no longer fit for purpose."

Since 2014, the Wokrplace Gender Equality Agency has found, the pay gap between men and women fell from 24.7 per cent to 20.1 per cent. The rate of annual decrease is less than 1 per cent, meaning Australia is still a quarter of a century away from gender pay equality.

Yet, when looking at our neighbour New Zealand, the World Economic Forum's findings show that it is streets ahead of Australia, both in terms of legislation and the effectiveness of that legislation.

Not only has New Zealand's Equal Pay Act has been in place for over 50 years - five times as long as Australia-but its gender pay gap is less than half of Australia's.

Women who've been exposed to workplace harassment have recourse through the Fair Work Commission. The reality is that the commission is effectively a judicial body, and most applicants will require legal representation to pursue complaints.

The commission encourages employers and employees to settle matters through private conciliation. Even without going before the tribunal, an applicant can incur five-figure legal fees. Serious matters of harassment that progress to the Federal Court of Australia result in legal fees running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

This leaves the obvious question: can legislation really benefit women in the workplace when the legal framework effectively makes it financially impossible for women to access the protection of workplace laws?

Not helping the situation is the stark inequality between men and women when it comes to long-term financial security offered by their employment.

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia has reported the average superannuation fund balance for men in the ACT is $487,985, whereas for women it is less than half of that at $207,101. Compared to men, women have far less of a financial cushion should they engage in workplace actions that would likely make their current employment untenable, even if they win.

The Respect@Work Report recommended the Sex Discrimination Act be amended to expressly prohibit the creation, or facilitation of, an "intimidating, hostile, humiliating or offensive environment". Doing so would "provide clarity [to the law]" and legally draw a boundary against unacceptable, degrading workplace environments or attitudes toward women.

Moreover, the AHRC found that various terms within the Sex Discrimination Act, such as "conduct of a sexual nature", needed to be defined, while the definition of others, such as "sexual harassment", needed to be simplified and modified.

Such reforms, while small, highlight the inconsistent, inefficient, and convoluted nature of the current legislation in addressing workplace gender inequality.

Another problem of inequity identified by the commission was the position of public sector employees. There are 2.1 million people employed across all levels of government in Australia.

However, state-based public servants - who comprise 76 per cent of all public sector employees - have no access to the Sex Discrimination Act. Women who experience harassment in state government workplaces must rely on state-based anti-discrimination legislation, which is not uniform across jurisdictions.

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Clearly, existing federal legislation is failing its objectives to effectively address gender inequality and sexual harassment issues in the workplace. At best the implementation of some legislated protections are problematic; at worst, others are completely ineffective.

On the surface, there is seemingly a widespread public perception that the current legislation is effective, and Australia is heading in the right direction. These perceptions, however, might simply be attributed to the convoluted nature of said legislation.

While major structural change may be needed to completely achieve gender equality in Australian workplaces, substantive legislative change would serve to promote gender equality on both a legal and workplace culture front.

If the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Index has seen Australia's global rank drop from 15^th to 50^th, it hardly supports the argument of some lawmakers that Australia is getting it right.