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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-03-17 Daily Xml
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Review of Harassment in the South Australian Parliament Workplace

The Hon. C. BONAROS (14:36): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking you a question about the equal opportunity commissioner's report, Review of Harassment in the South Australian Parliament Workplace, tabled by you earlier this month.

Leave granted.

The Hon. C. BONAROS: Further to my previous question to you, the report makes a number of references and recommendations about parliament's standing orders. In particular, recommendation 3 recommends that the Standing Orders Committee undertakes a review of standing orders for gender neutrality and to ensure the orders do not impede women entering political life.

Today's InDaily is reporting that organisers of Adelaide's March 4 Justice rally, which attracted some 8,000 participants to Victoria Square on Monday, are calling on the parliament's Standing Orders Committee to publicly reveal whether it is considering the recommendations of the report.

That report also says that the rally's organising committee has called on you, Mr President, as Presiding Member of the committee, to make a public statement about what is being considered as part of the current review of the Parliament House standing orders. They have also asked you, Mr President, to disclose if you are considering the recommendations of the commission that I alluded to earlier.

My questions, Mr President, to you as President and Presiding Officer of the committee are:

1. Have you now had an opportunity to read the report in its entirety?

2. In light of the Equal Opportunity Commission's findings and recommendations, are you concerned that parliament's standing orders haven't been revised for more than 21 years?

3. Given that the standing orders haven't been changed in 21 years, and the committee has only met a handful of times during that period, what plans are there to make the considerations of the committee more transparent to the members of this place and to the public more generally?

The PRESIDENT (14:38): I thank the honourable member for her question. I would remind her that there is a convention in this place—a courtesy, perhaps—to advise the presiding member when a question is to be asked, but I respect the fact that that doesn't have to happen. The honourable member is aware that we have only very recently had a conversation about this matter outside the chamber. I won't say that I have read every word of the equal opportunity commissioner's report; however, I have read a great deal of it.

The Standing Orders Committee has met. It met late last year, as members will know. The members were invited to make submissions about changes to standing orders. I wouldn't say that the committee was at any stage overwhelmed with changes; however, we have met. We met last Friday to consider those limited suggestions, the ones that have been previously made to the committee or forwarded to the Clerk, by the honourable member and some others. So some deliberation was taking place last Friday, and the committee will meet again in April.

I do not intend to offer to the chamber at this point or publicly the indication of where that goes because the members of the committee deserve the opportunity to look at the material that was presented to them last Friday.

As far as dealing with the organisers of the march, I am more than happy to meet with them if they would like to make contact with my office. My details are very publicly available. If they wish to do that I am very happy to meet with them, but I haven't had any contact from them other than being told of a media release in that regard.

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