Junior public servants in the Department of Infrastructure and Transport’s graduate program allegedly compiled a “hotties list” which rated female colleagues’ attractiveness.
During the infrastructure, transport and regional development budget estimates on Monday, senators grilled the department’s secretary, Jim Betts, about staffing issues including a retention rate far below other public service departments.
Betts was asked about harassment incidents among staff. He expressed concerns about providing answers to questions that could have privacy implications for staff and requested to provide a briefing, separate to the public estimates hearing, to manage privacy concerns.
However, Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie later asked Betts if the phrase “hotties list” meant anything to him.
Betts replied “you’re going down this path, aren’t you, Senator, which I’ve warned you about”.
“This relates to allegations which were made within our graduate programme about concerns that some female grads had that certain male members of the graduate cohort had assembled a degrading list of women which assessed them by their so-called hotness, which is just a disgusting phrase that I hate to have to mention.”
Betts said that “confronted with the concerns that had been expressed by our female graduates”, he “assembled that graduate cohort and … reminded everybody of the need for respect in the workplace”.
“We have subsequently undertaken more formal investigations into that,” he said.
He said that “there are certain procedural fairness considerations and evidentiary tests that need to be satisfied”.
“We were unable to substantiate the existence of such a list, which doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It just means that we were unable to substantiate it, notwithstanding the fact that we got independent external investigators to assist us in our inquiries.”
Department officials were verbally notified of the rumour of a list on 30 March, the estimates committee heard. The graduate cohort then completed a standard public service staff training module in April, not specific to sexual harassment.
In May, the department received further verbal advice about the list, and approached one of the graduates.
On 19 May, the department received a written complaint in relation to the list.
Betts said the department subsequently approached the sex discrimination officer for advice. He also said he had conversations with female graduates away from male graduates to check they were getting necessary support.
Betts said he did not inform Catherine King, the minister responsible for the department, about the incident, claiming he wasn’t sure getting politicians involved would help.
“We needed to protect the confidentiality and sensitivity of the staff concerned. Frankly, I’m the employer, not the minister,” he said.
He added that the graduate cohort – which was mostly under 30 years old – was two thirds male, and that this split would never be repeated in future cohorts.
“We’ve learned some lessons from this,” Betts said.
Earlier on Monday, Betts began his appearance before the estimates hearing by blasting Nationals senator Matt Canavan for complaining about delays in answering questions, telling senators his department staff have worked through weekends to answer an “eyewatering” increase in questions.
