Jenna Price | Respect@Work bill following Jenkins inquiry to make workplaces take positive duty on sexual harassment

The Respect@Work bill, introduced this week, grew from an established practice, that of the survey done regularly by the Australian Human Rights Commission on sexual harassment at work. Did we civilians know what was going on in our parliamentary workplaces? We had inklings because we know what goes in our regular workplaces. And it was the intersection of the findings of the regular report from the AHRC and the push from activists which has brought about the bill.

Australia's Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins who led the development of the Respect@Work inquiry and report is rightly thrilled. As she points out, workers have a right to be free from sexual harassment.

"This legislative reform will create a regulatory environment in Australia that is key to the realisation of that right for all Australian workers."

Let's not proceed without giving the Coalition a bit of a belting first. They were universally pathetic around sexual harassment and sexual assault at work. Worse than gormless. And then, when Jenkins released her report, the Coalition refused to accept her recommendation to include positive duty, which means businesses have to take responsibility for protecting employees from sexual harassment.

For years, the Coalition tortured the Australian Human Rights Commission. A little snip here, a massive cut there, annual funding crunched from $22.9 million to $14.6 million in 2017-18 when there was a rearrangement of how it got funded. By June 30 this year, it had sliced one in five staff. As a result, it's been overworked, underfunded and spending when it had no money.

On top of that, the former government appointed commissioners without any actual process. You'll remember Freedom Boy Tim Wilson, short-lived as a commissioner and short-lived as the member for Goldstein.

Then last year, the commission suffered the appointment of Lorraine Finlay. The position was not advertised. As I wrote last year, Finlay's background as a junior law academic gave no indication she could be up to the task (but life is full of surprises so maybe).

And all of that unaccountable and opaque behaviour had the AHRC (actually the government) on a warning from the UN Human Rights Council. Continue on that journey of undisclosed process, poor funding and lack of effectiveness and our human rights institution would permanently lose its A status, with reaccreditation now deferred until 2023, which gives it full participation rights at the UN Human Rights Council.

I'm sure the Coalition would have thought there was nothing wrong with that.

Justine Nolan, director of the Australian Human Rights Institute at UNSW, says she is optimistic that risk has been diminished. Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has plans to legislate merit-based and transparent appointments processes. Now, says Nolan, the next two steps will be to ensure that the AHRC is properly resourced and therefore has the opportunity to be effective.

The good news is that those inside the commission believe more funding will flow at the budget. While the government is understandably cagey about revealing good news before the Treasurer's budget debut in late October, sounds like Dreyfus understands the high stakes of protecting our national human rights institution.

As of next year, the AHRC will have more work to do. One year on from the passing of the Respect@Work legislation, the AHRC will be in charge of enforcing a positive duty. MinterEllison's workplace partner Amanda Watt describes the introduction of positive duty as an important shift in focus to systemically preventing sexual harassment, rather than relying on those impacted by this conduct to make a complaint at a time they are most vulnerable.

"We have relied on those impacted to make complaints, which is often too late to help prevention'' she says.

Now employers will have to take reasonable measures to make working environments safe. Physically safe. Mentally safe. That will start as soon as the bill is passed but the enhanced powers of the commission will be delayed 12 months to give employers a chance to make changes.

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There will also be guidance issued by the commission. Let's hope its first port of call is Parliament House.

The other brilliant news is that we expect guidance from the Respect@Work Council on the use of non-disclosure agreements. Watt says it is important that NDAs no longer have a gagging effect. Won't that be glorious when all survivors can be as frank and fearless as Julia Szlakowski, who spoke out about AMP's Boe Pahari. Mind you, he walked with plenty of money.

And what does Woman L think about Respect@Work?

Twenty years later, she is still desperately sad, still waiting for some form of reparation. But she is very pleased to see the new bill because she honestly believes it will lead to more employer awareness and politicians will now be forced to understand what it means to have a safe workplace. She's not too fussed on the training currently being offered (might need to be more trauma-informed, more sensitive) but at least there's something. She is dead keen on policies around alcohol in the workplace and on training bystanders to see what's happening before their eyes.

We can all work to make work safer but it will be a damn sight easier with respect at work.