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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-03-16 Daily Xml
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Review of Harassment in the South Australian Parliament Workplace

Dr CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:10): My question is again to the Premier. Has the government taken any action to pursue the reports of sexual assault and indecent exposure contained in the acting equal opportunity commissioner's Review of Harassment in the South Australian Parliament Workplace?

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Planning and Local Government) (14:10): Indeed—

Mr Knoll interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN: —there are a number of aspects that have been already taken up. Firstly, this government acted quickly to ensure there were funding and resources to underwrite and support this parliament undertaking the review. I requested the equal opportunity commissioner—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN: —to undertake that work as expeditiously as possible. In fact, she worked over the Christmas period and the January period so that when we got back to parliament we would have something to consider. In February, that was presented, as she indicated she would do. It was very timely tabled in the parliament by you, sir, and the President, and we thank you for attending to that.

I would hope everyone in this parliament has since read it, but, as I pointed out this morning, there are a number of things we have already done. The Premier signed up all the ministers of this government to include a specific prohibition in relation to such conduct as sexual harassment and discrimination in their workplace. That has been made very clear. Cabinet has been informed. It is in place.

Secondly, the Treasurer, as I pointed out this morning, is already undertaking the work necessary to support recommendation 1 and a number of following recommendations that might flow from work that is recommended for a people and culture unit and a human resources unit to be either established here in the parliament or accessible to those who work in the parliament. That work is already underway.

What has become clear is that the different contractual arrangements and existing protections for a number of those who work within our parliament need to be provided so the committee that we recommended and passed in this parliament this morning will have sufficient information for them to be able to apply that—identify what is required, where it should occur and to whom it should be available because already there have been identified areas of employment that need to be separately considered. Some already have laws that apply and services provisioned for them.

I don't know specifically what position the Clerk of this house or the Clerk of the Legislative Council has in relation to their employment by the parliament, but that is something clearly the parliament committee will need to have, and this government is already acting to collate that information so we can support that inquiry.

Thirdly, as Attorney-General, there are two recommendations on amendment to the Equal Opportunity Act. If I were to summarise them, one is to streamline the process of how a complaint is received by someone in the parliamentary workplace—if I generalise in that regard—as to how it be applied, that is, whether it be referred to the Speaker or President, whether it singularly identify the question of parliamentary privilege or whether there should be an ongoing role of the Speaker or President.

That is one area of consideration that needs to be looked at and that is a matter I already have people working on. The second relates to the question of the positive duty of an employer within this workplace to apply a protection for those as part of a safe workplace. It's a work health and safety matter. There is reference to the Victorian system, which applies to all workplaces in Victoria, in the report. I urge members to have a look at it because clearly that is a recommendation of a model that goes across workplaces and not just this parliament . I'm happy to keep doing that list in the next question.

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