Login
Legal profession welcomes ‘overdue’ workplace sexual harassment update
Legal groups and firms have welcomed the government’s intention to implement all 55 recommendations from the Respect@Work report, including refining definitions and covering judges and politicians under harassment laws they have since evaded.
Naomi Neilson
In a long-awaited move, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and federal Attorney-General Michaelia Cash confirmed the Australian government would be implementing the recommendations either as it appears in the report or partially 15 months after it was published and following major calls for reform by legal bodies and practitioners.
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
Law Council of Australia (LCA) president Dr Jacoba Brasch QC welcomed the announcement and said that eliminating sexual harassment from the profession has been a “long-running commitment” of the major legal body, emphasised by recent events that have required “necessary, and overdue, cultural change”.
“The government’s broad support of the 55 recommendations of the Respect@Work report… is a positive step forward,” Dr Brasch said. “It is particularly pleasing to see the first words of the report align with those of the Law Council, stating that sexual harassment is unacceptable in any context, ‘whether in the workplace or elsewhere’.”
While the government is aiming to implement all legislative changes by the end of the year, with specific measures announced in next month’s federal budget, the announcement was unclear about exactly which recommendations would be implemented as they appear in the report and which would be amended.
Speaking to media, Mr Morrison and Ms Cash did confirm that the scope of the Sex Discrimination Act would be extended so that complaints may be made against judges and politicians. Hall & Wilcox employment partner Fay Calderone did caution that it is still unclear which consequences MPs will face if guilty of harassment.
Also extended is the time frame for bringing sexual harassment complaints to the Australian Human Rights Commission from six months to two years. On top of this, amendments will be made to the definition of serious misconduct in Fair Work regulations to include sexual harassment and clarify it can be a ground for dismissal.
On the time-frame extension, Shine Lawyers head of employment law Samantha Mangwana said that the previous six months was “unrealistic and yet another hurdle which simply failed to recognise the complex challenges for victims”.
“They will soon have a 24-hour window instead, which more meaningfully reflects the time necessary for many victims to come forward,” Ms Mangwana said. “It is hoped that this may therefore encourage more victims to take action,” she said.
Accepted partially during the press conference is the recommendation to issue a “stop sexual harassment orders”, which will instead be covered under the “stop bullying order”. The concept of positive duty will also be introduced, however only as it “looks at how to implement the positive duty in the Sex Discrimination Act”.
“While it is not clear what legislative changes are being proposed, the effectiveness of the legislation will depend upon how it is drafted. Addressing prior ambiguities is key to ensuring that sexual harassment is appropriately addressed, and that problematic conduct does not fall into regulatory gaps,” Dr Brasch said.
Sydney Law School’s Professor Simon Rice said that the proposed amendments are coming 13 years after a Senate committee review of the Sex Discrimination Act in which they recommended a blanket ban on sexual harassment.
“I will want to see what the actual amendments are,” Professor Rice said. “Anything less than a blanket ban will be inadequate. The so-called ‘specifics’ are not complicated. Courts and parliaments are workplaces, and workers there are entitled to the same protections as everyone else.”
