Thread by @HaydenJOConnor

A thread ⬇️⬇️⬇️ on the 55 recommendations of the Respect@Work report that @ScottMorrisonMP and his Government have ignored. #auspol #March4Justice #EnoughisEnough
humanrights.gov.au/our-work/sex-d…

The full report is titled Respect@Work: National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces. Attorney-General @cporterwa received this report on the 29/01/20, over a year ago now. Yet he has done nothing with it.

In Commissioner @Kate_Jenkins_ forward, she reports that the Human Rights Commission has conducted for surveys since 2003. One in three people have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace over the past 5 years.

The first recommendation is to simply work with the State and Territory Governments to implement the report. Obviously we know that haven't done this.

Recommendation 2 is quite simple. If The Government can't implement the simple recommendation of funding a survey on sexual harassment every four years, the shows that they don't take sexual harassment seriously at all.

You could certainly speculate that the Government has failed to implement this recommendation as the results of future surveys would only put more pressure on them to take action. Shameful if true.

The third recommendation is a sensible request to enable de-identified data sharing between agencies that work in the area of workplace sexual harassment. This appears to be a low cost recommendation that would be quite useful.

Recommendation 4 asks the Government to support the creation of a National Sexual Harassment Research Agenda. This would help create more effective policy on tackling sexual harassment in the workplace.

This is again another research based recommendation that would be extremely useful in identifying an evidence based approach to the policy on sexual harassment. Targeted research provides more value for money also, why can't the Government support this recommendation?

ANROWS is the Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women. They are non-profit and work in the area of tackling violence against women and their children. Their research is peer reviewed. anrows.org.au/about/

You might wonder if it is appropriate for a research organization for Women to lead the National Sexual Harassment Research Agenda given that 1 in 5 men have also experienced sexual harassment at work over the past 5 years.

As the work would be done in liaison with the Workplace Sexual Harassment Council I believe it is appropriate.

Particularly when you consider that women are more likely to be sexually harassed at work (2 out of 5) and outside the workplace, 1 in 6 women are sexually assaulted from the age of 15 compared to 1 in 25 men according to the 2016 ABS PSS survey.

Recommendation 5 wants COAG, which is the intergovernmental forum to agree to prioritise policy to address violence against women.

This will possibly be more difficult now as @ScottMorrisonMP has reformed COAG into the National Cabinet and is preventing FOI access to documents used in these meetings.

However, there is nothing stopping our state and territory governments for declaring sexual harassment action as a key part of their platform and we should demand this from our respective State Governments. Morrison won't act, so our state and territory leaders must!

6 and 7 are again recommendations that our state and territory governments can act upon even if the Federal Government doesn't.

The 'Change the Story' video clearly explains how gender inequality leads to violence against women. It supports recommendations 6 and 7. It is evident that the inequality cycle starts from childhood and must be addressed.

Recommendation 8 states that Our Watch should lead the development, implementation and evaluation of strategies on sexual harassment. Our Watch created the above video and are dedicated to stopping violence before it starts. You can read more here
ourwatch.org.au

Our Watch has a Strategic Plan on the prevention of violence against women and their children. They are clearly an appropriate and well equipped organization to develop strategies on sexual harassment and violence prevention. You can read their plan here
media-cdn.ourwatch.org.au/wp-content/upl…

Recommendation 9 is clearly needed. Education resources for young people on their workplace rights. It's easier to speak up when you know what your rights are. There is no excuse for @ScottMorrisonMP and his Government to not implement this straight away!

Of course, State and Territory governments could take some action on Recommendation 9 but to be promoted by the AHRC and FWO, it would require Federal Government involvement. Additionally, these type of resources would be more beneficial if identical across all of Australia.

This is something that we have heard many calling for over the past few months. Respectful relationship education is a no brainer and it's a disgrace that this recommendation has been ignored by the Federal Government.

11 and 12 are crucial recommendations. Those at TAFE and Uni should be receiving training on sexual harassment and their rights. Education is key and the Fed Government should absolutely fund this training for smaller institutions that can't afford to provide it.

Recommendation 13/14 is somewhat problematic. It always is when the media is involved. I 100% agree that media reports on these matters should be responsible and victim-centered. However, guidelines are just that and the Press Council is weak!

Implementing guidelines and knoweldge building measures will see no change to how the media reports sexual harassment or rape.

The Australian allowed @vanOnselenP to discredit a dead woman and ABC's Insiders gave him a platform to tell us how hard it for for friends of the accused. Guidelines will not stop that sort of disgusting lack of integrity and morals.

The problem is that guidelines are a guide and not enforceable, we need a massive overhaul of media in this country. From ownership laws to ENFORCEABLE standards, it all needs to change.

Of course it's not the place of this report to suggest a complete overhaul of Australian media and whilst I support the sentiment of recommendation 13/14, it won't make any difference without a complete media overhaul.

Recommendation 14 goes beyond the media and recommendations the creation of the Workplace Sexual Harassment Council.

You would have seen the Workplace Sexual Harassment Council referenced in previous recommendations, it doesn't exist yet so for those recommendations to be carried out, recommendation 14 must be implemented first.

The council would be chaired by the Sex Discrimination Commissioner with members from the Fair Work Commission/Ombudsman, Safe Work Australia, heads of the state/territory Workplace Safety and Worker's Comp authorities, and the Australian Council of Human Rights Authorities.

The proposed Council has an excellent and relevant list of members. You could argue for the inclusion of a law enforcement representative, however, the Council includes room for associate members as needed to provide specific advice on relevant issues.

Allowing associate members is an excellent idea that would see the Council able to tackle any issue related to the important matter of sexual harassment by seeking advice from the relevant experts as required.

Recommendation 15 wants the Government to ratify ILO Convention 190. ILO is the International Labour Organization. Convention 190 refers to the Violence and Harassment Convention 2019. The convention consists of 20 short articles in relation to workplace violence and harassment.

You can read C190 here: ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en…

Should the Government ratify C190? Probably. However, Australia has a habit of ignoring international conventions, such as the 1951 Refugee Convention. So ratifying something that the Government might no act upon would be a way for them to easily deflect responsibility.

Additionally, ratifying the convention wouldn't fix any problems. Browsing through the convention, I can easily see how the Government could already argue that Australia is in line with the convention.

Only Argentina, Fiji, Namibia, Somalia and Uruguay have ratified the convention. This means there will be no International pressure on Australia to ratify it.

It's not a battle worth fighting either, the other recommendations are far more important. Australia will be much better served by pushing for education and law reform as we can do that without the convention.

Recommendation 16 is one of the most important and there should be no delay in implementing it.

There is no reasonable argument against changing the Sex Discrimination Act to prohibit sex-based harassment and humiliation etc. Nor is there an argument against the exemption of state public servants. Recommendation 16 would already be in motion with a Government that cared.

17 is a good recommendation in principle but it would need further shaping of the language involved before becoming law.

Reasonable and proportionate is easily argued either way regardless of the factors to be considered. This would possibly allow an employer to argue that their lack of action was sufficient, which is not the desired outcome.

Recommendation 18 is a great idea. The Commission should be given powers to investigate compliance of the positive duty described in recommendation 17, without these powers, the change to legislation would be somewhat pointless.

Yes. This is a fantastic recommendation. Allowing the Humans Rights Commission to launch inquiries into systemic discrimination would benefit those who have been discriminated by their sex but also other types of discrimination such as race, religion, age etc.

We all know the Government would never go for recommendation 19 though. A, B, C and D are all very scary for a Prime Minister of a Party that full of discrimination against women

Rec 20 desires section 105 of the Sex Discrimination to act apply to sexual harrasment.

Section 105 essentially makes those who aid in the carrying out of acts under Division 1 or 2 of Part II be treated by the law as having committed those acts themselves.

Division 1 and 2 or Part II are lengthy so I won't go into that, essentially what you need to know is that Division 1 is Discrimination in Work and Division 2 is Discrimination in other areas.

Division 3 covers Sexual Harassment so therefore Sexual Harassment is not currently subject to Section 105, hence the recommendation.

Having looked at the legislation, I agree with the recommendation. One of the big problems is those who do nothing when they witness harassment. Witnessing and doing nothing is permitting it to happen and we all need to stand up.

If Recommendation 20 was implemented, Section 105 would read:
'A person who causes, instructs, induces, aids or permits another person to do an act that is unlawful under Division 1, 2 or 3 of Part II shall, for the purposes of this Act, be taken also to have done the act.'

The change would mean those who permit, aid or instruct harassment could be charged with harassment. I think this would be a good change.

If you've got nothing better to do, you can read the legislation here legislation.gov.au/Details/C2014C…

Rec 21 would allow victims to take civil action against all crimes under section 94 of the Sex Discrimination Act. A great idea. Victims deserves financial compensation.

Section 94 Victimisation of the Sex Discrimination Act basically prohibits the threatening of someone who is about to or has provided evidence or made a complaint etc. It is essentially protection for alleged victims, so yes, allowing civil action in such cases is appropriate.

Rec 22 if implemented would not allow the President of the Human Rights Commission to terminate a complaint (at their discretion) on the basis of time untill 24 months has passed. Under Section 46PH, this is currently 6 months so this would be a good change.

Rec 23 would allow Unions or another representative group to bring claims before a court. This would be most useful in the case where multiple people are victims of workplace harassment due to the actions of a person, organisation or group of people.

The recommendation (23) doesn't specify whether this would apply purely to harassment or every type of human rights abuse that the Human Rights Commission act covers.

Recommendation 24 and 25 cover damages. 24 recommends that The Government does research on the impacts that harassment has on victims.
This is naturally a good recommendation, as a society wwe should be aware of the damage done to people's lives.

Rec 25 covers costs and specifically cost protection in line with S 570 of the Fair Work Act. If implemented the Human Rights Commission act will allow partys who instigate frivolous proceedings to be ordered to pay the other party's legal costs.

This is a brilliant recommendation (26) and something that the Government should already be working on. There should be consistency country wide with human rights and anti-discrimination laws.

Given what we've heard from Grace Tame, this consistency should apply to consent laws also!

Recommendation 27 wants a process to document historical workplace harassment. I don't have to explain to you why the Government hasn't implemented this one!

This is a simple one (28) and you'd hope that it is already expressly prohibited. If it isn't, then changes must be made.

Under section 789FC of the Fair Work Act 2009, a worker can apply to the Fair Work Commission for a stop bullying order. Recommendation 29 seeks to provide the same option for victims of sexual harassment.

I suppose that would be a good move but I'd rather see those who sexually harass colleagues lose their job than be given an order to stop. Adults know that sexual harassment is wrong, they don't need a warning.

Recommendations 30, 31 and 32 are all on unfair dismissal and are very straight forward. Sexual harassment should be added into the legislation for reasons that someone might have been unfairly dismissed.

@ScottMorrisonMP, what on earth is stopping you from implementing the above three recommendations?

A very good recommendation (33) and again straight forward, which makes @ScottMorrisonMP's inaction even more pathetic. What has Morrison got against providing updated sexual harassment information to employees?

Should recommendation 34 really be limited to just the FWO and FWC? It seems like the type of training that would be useful to everyone in a management position and that includes our Ministers!

Recommendation 35 references the Boland Report which you can read here: safeworkaustralia.gov.au/system/files/d…

Specifically the recommendation is in reference to Recommendation 2 in the Boland Report.

However, the Boland Report itself doesn't cover sexual harassment so the recommendation to develop a sexual harassment model for the WHS comes from the fact that the WHS doesn't include mental health or sexual harassment at all when it clearly should.

Recommendation 36 and 37 are just common sense, those undertaking this work should be educated on the relevant topics.

I'm not a victim of sexual harassment so perhaps it's not my place to comment but aren't NDAs a bad thing? Victims should be free to speak. I'm therefore a bit perplexed by rec 38. Please feel free to comment if you have some insight into this.

Recommendation 39 is very interesting to consider given Porter's current defamation case (even though @Milliganreports and the ABC aren't victims). Really it makes you think, how on earth can Porter be fit for his role as AG given the allegations against him.

Of course recommendation 39 only covers sexual harassment, not assault and if you agree with recommendation 39, surely you'd also agree to extending it to defamation cases relating to sexual assault also?

This is something that state and territory Governments could implement on their own. Nevertheless, what excuse do you have @ScottMorrisonMP for not implementing recommendation 40? It's literally just training for judges and magistrates...

41 is partly what I mentioned earlier, that training could be extended to those in managerial positions. An excellent recommendation that you can't dispute.

42 and 43 are sensible recommendations on external reporting. As pointed out by Change the Story, gender inequality is a huge contributing factor to harassment and assault so obtaining this data is vital.

Recommendation 44 covers ASX companies to report sexual harassment data. They already have to report data on gender equality so this would be an easy addition to their requirements. This is important to track given the low percentage of women working at these companies.

Recommendation 45 is straight forward. Those who advise employers on sexual harassment should have the relevant training.

This is interesting, recommendation 46 would be a huge ask, usually this data is obtained via survey in terms of how many people are being harassed at work. Stats on prevention and response might be difficult to obtain but it's certainly worth the effort.

This is a great recommendation (47). There is certainly a role for unions and associations etc to play in harassment prevention. I'd also hope if the Council was formed, they'd have useful resources for unions and industry bodies to utilise.

This would be awesome. Why on earth can't you implement recommendation 48 @ScottMorrisonMP? We would all benefit from online education and resources as it would be easily accessible.

This one is a no brainer, I don't even need to comment on it. Recommendation 49 should be implemented.

Rec 50 makes perfect sense. The Human Rights Commission should be the central contact point for other organizations to obtain information. That way the information is correct and consistent.

These are both great initiatives, hotlines providing information and referrals will be useful to many victims. 51 and 52 should clearly be implemented.

53 is another obvious one. There is no reason not to implement it. Vulnerable people deserve access to high quality legal assistance. Justice should not just be for those who can afford it.

This may already be partly done? Everytime I watch TV these days, the 1800 respect Number has been mentioned. If the hotline was overwhelmed we would have heard about it?

The hotline is already providing counselling for dealing with sexual assault and domestic violence. Of course, the resources of such an important service should always be monitored to ensure they can support those in need.

55 is of vital importance. Victims must be supported. I'd go even further and say that psychological support for victims of sexual harassment and assault should be entirely covered by Medicare. There shouldn't be a financial burden due to the actions of others.

So that brings an end to looking at the 55 recommendations that @ScottMorrisonMP and @cporterwa has completely ignored!

It's pretty easy to see why they've ignored it. Many of the recommendations, if implemented would be a risk for this Government as they would allow the disclosure of sexual harassment in Parliament.

The media should be asking @ScottMorrisonMP if this report was ignored purely to protect his Government! #auspol #March4Justice #EnoughIsEnough

It's important to note that this report was only sexual harassment. We need a report and action on sexual assault in the workplace. We've heard from too many women that this goes well beyond harassment and that can't be ignored! #EnoughIsEnough

Some of these recommendations can be implemented without the Federal Government. Whilst it is common sense for The Fed Government to act upon their own report, @ScottMorrisonMP clearly has no intention to do so.

Therefore, maybe it is time to demand action from our state and territory governments.

Having said that, many recommendations rely upon the forming of the Workplace Sexual Harassment Council which needs to be done by the Federal Government. So naturally, our state and territory governments will be limited in what they can do.

Thanks for reading, enjoy the rest of your weekend. :)