Australia to end sexual harassment exemption for politicians

Australia’s politicians and judges will no longer be exempt from rules against sexual harassment at work, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced, as he tried to quell public anger over his conservative government’s handling of a series of sexual abuse scandals.

Speaking to reporters in the Australian capital on Thursday, Morrison said his government would overhaul the country’s sexual discrimination laws to make members of parliament, judges and public servants accountable for harassing colleagues in the workplace.

“Sexual harassment is unacceptable,” Morrison said in Canberra.

“It’s not only immoral and despicable and even criminal, but … it denies Australians, especially women, not just their personal security but their economic security by not being safe at work.”

At present, legislators, judges and public servants are exempt from complaints about workplace gender discrimination, as are some employers of volunteers, because of a legal loophole that means they are technically not the complainant’s employer.

However, they can still face criminal prosecution for sexual assault.

Morrison said the legal change proposed on Thursday was “about getting everyone on as much of a playing field as possible”.

He said employers will also now be required to take a proactive approach to stop gender discrimination, while complainants will get a longer period of time to lodge their complaint.

The moves were in response to a “Respect@Work” report – handed down more than a year ago following a national inquiry into sexual harassment – and came just weeks after sexual abuse allegations rocked Australia’s halls of power.

In February, a female former staffer in Morrison’s Liberal Party went public with allegations she was raped by a colleague in parliament in 2019, while in March, the country’s then-attorney general identified himself as the subject of an unrelated historical rape allegation in 1988, which he has strongly denied.

Critics said the cases, and the government’s apparent initial reluctance to act, have highlighted a “toxic” and sexist culture in Australia’s Parliament.