The author of a landmark review of the workplace culture in Parliament House says it is a "myth" that MPs and senators are shielded from sanctions just because they cannot be sacked.
A range of punishments including the stripping of travel entitlements could be on the table for MPs and senators under sweeping reforms to the complaints process at Parliament House.
The powers of the new regulatory bodies proposed yesterday in Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins's landmark report are yet to be defined by the federal government.
The review recommends replacing the existing complaints process for political staffers — which is run by the Department of Finance — with a new body that would be accountable to the parliament, not the government of the day.
The body would be able to refer complaints to a standards commission, which could issue "sanctions" for offenders, regardless of whether the offender was a staffer or an elected member of parliament.
Speaking to 7.30 after the release of the report, Ms Jenkins said it was a "myth" that "you can't hold someone accountable for a conduct because something about the Westminster system says no sanctions can be applied".
She said the constitution did mean her team had to do some "finessing" of options for punishing elected MPs and senators.
But she said her review, run through the Human Rights Commission, had arrived at a two-tiered system for punishing MPs.
Lower-level sanctions could be handed down directly by the new regulator. For higher-level sanctions, the regulator would need to refer cases to the parliament's own privileges committee.
"Those more senior sanctions or more serious sanctions would be applied by parliament," Ms Jenkins said.
"And those are the sanctions that might be applied — for example, taking away travel allowances — that could interfere with the parliamentarians doing their job. But it is for the parliament to regulate its own conduct."
New complaints system recommended
The Jenkins review, released on Tuesday, found one in three people working in Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces had experienced sexual harassment.
Of those who had experienced that harassment at the hands of a single perpetrator, 26 per cent reported that the harasser was an elected MP or senator.
The review recommends a new independent office of parliamentarian staffing and culture which would become the main clearing house for complaints. Complaints could then be referred to a new standards commission, which would be responsible for sanctions.
The review identified broad distrust among political staffers of the existing complaints mechanisms available through the Department of Finance, with many reporting they felt the system was stacked against them.
