Thread by @Julieoz836

1. Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins said she isn’t “giving up” when it comes to the legislative implementation of the remaining recommendations of the Respect@Work report on sexual harassment.

Speaking at a panel session at the National Summit on Women’s Safety

2. on Monday, Jenkins explained that “even though it was frustrating” the Federal government did not legislate all of the recommendations in the report last week, the remaining recommendations that can be legislated are not “off the agenda”, either. Last week, the Federal

3. government passed a bill that enacted 6 out of the 12 legislative recommendations made in the report, which included 55 recommendations in TOTAL. This was after Scott Morrison had said that he would implement all the recommendations of the Jenkins report, The government

4. did not legislate the main recommendation around a “positive duty of care” on the part of employers to prevent sexual harassment in workplaces – Jenkins said she is most concerned with getting this particular recommendation implemented.

5. Jenkins said she “welcomes everyone’s views on the legislation passed” & the advocacy required to push the government to look at implementing the remaining recommendations, particularly on positive duty of care. She said she is “pragmatic” about working with

6. the government of the day to get the most out of the report.
“They haven’t said no to the other recommendations,” Jenkins told the panel “Six of them were legislated and it could have been none. It’s not been a NO, but it would have been fabulous if it all went through.”

7. “I’m not giving up.”
Speaking more broadly around sexual harassment, Jenkins said in workplaces the main driver is power disparities, and that “gender inequality is the main driver of that”.