Equal Opportunity Commissioner's Independent Review of Harassment in the Parliament Workplace

The Hon. C. BONAROS (15:00): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Attorney a question about the fourth progress report of the equal opportunity commissioner's review of harassment in the South Australian parliament workplace, tabled in the House of Assembly on 1 May this year and in the last sitting week of this chamber.

Leave granted.

The Hon. C. BONAROS: That progress report notes in its executive summary that 10 of the 16 recommendations arising from the original review of 2021 have been successfully adopted, while a further three are underway. As we know, it has been four years since the recommendations were first made public. Whilst one of the three outstanding recommendations relating to the promotion of internal policies within parties has been noted as being addressed by parties themselves, outstanding recommendations 11 and 15 are earmarked as relating exclusively to the portfolio of the Attorney.

My question to the Attorney is: what, if any, progress has been made towards adopting the outstanding recommendations of the equal opportunity commissioner's review at recommendations 11 and 15?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector, Special Minister of State) (15:01): I thank the honourable member for her question. Again, it is similar to a question that the honourable member asked about the legal profession yesterday. I acknowledge the work that she has done in shining a light on some of the issues in regard to practices and harassment in the parliament workplace.

As the honourable member mentioned, there are a number of recommendations. Most of the recommendations relate to the parliament and the functions of parliament. I acknowledge, sir, yours and the Speaker's third progress report, and it is clear that work against many of the recommendations made is being well progressed. I thank you and your colleague, the Speaker in the other place, for the work that has been put into doing that.

In relation to the two that the honourable member has highlighted, which are recommendations that fall within government and within my portfolio areas, work is progressing on those. Both of those are extraordinarily complicated things for a couple of different reasons. I think recommendation 11 deals with the way that complaints are handled and managed in the context of parliamentary privilege.

Parliamentary privilege, of course, is a concept that is longstanding and important to the functioning of what we do in this chamber and in the other chamber, so any change that would change the context of parliamentary privilege—and, if I remember correctly, our rules apply the concept of parliamentary privilege as it was understood; I can't remember the date, but a certain date in the UK parliamentary system—needs to be very, very carefully thought through, but we are considering that recommendation.

The other recommendation I think is recommendation 15, and this one is being considered. Again, this is a complicated recommendation because it isn't exclusive to the workplace of the parliamentary precincts. It would propose to change obligations in relation to workplaces generally. So we are looking at those two, but for different reasons both of those are involved and complex areas to look at.