The veteran Victorian Liberal Russell Broadbent has written to Scott Morrison urging him to convene a summit of women’s peak organisations and mandate a requirement for gender impact statements on all policy and legislation in the wake of Monday’s March 4 Justice.
Broadbent has also implored his parliamentary colleagues to “be quiet, listen and learn” and to be “responsible and accountable” to tens of thousands of Australian women who protested against gender-based violence and harassment on Monday.
The government MP’s pointed intervention follows sustained criticism of the prime minister for choosing not to attend Canberra’s March 4 Justice rally. Morrison has also been criticised for not reading a statement sent to him by friends of the now deceased woman who alleged the attorney general Christian Porter raped her when they were both teenagers in 1988 – an allegation Porter categorically denies.
The Liberal backbencher used a speech in the parliament on Thursday to declare that stonewalling wouldn’t cut it.
“This week marked a moment in our history when many thousands of Australians took to the streets to demand respect, justice and safety for women,” Broadbent said.
“As both an elected representative, and a man, I hear the anger, the hurt and acknowledge the disregard for women that has led to this fork in the road,” he said. “I am horrified at the levels of abuse, intimidation, harassment, discrimination and violence against women in this, our great southern land.”
Broadbent said Australian women needed to drive meaningful change and he hoped “more men” would join them. “Politicians need to be quiet, listen and learn, because actions, not words, count.”
The MP said on Thursday the political class was “all responsible and accountable” for the current deficiencies, and needed to understand that for the women of Australia, change was now “not negotiable”.
The MP said the rallies around the country showed that “the tide has turned”.
“It is a privilege to be in a position where we can affect change and commit to justice, safety and respect for Australian women of all ages, and so enrich the nation,” he said.
Broadbent has written to the prime minister proposing a summit of women’s peak organisations “to recommend to parliament the pathway to real and lasting change in our homes, our workplaces and on the streets”.
He said the government should also attach a gender impact statement to “all cabinet submissions, new policies and legislation”. Such a requirement would mean any potential effects of a proposed law or decision on the state of equality between men and women would have to be evaluated first.
The push comes as the government has adjusted the program in the Senate to ensure it can deal with expedited legislation ensuring that political staff wanting to make submissions to the Jenkins inquiry into parliamentary culture can do so without their contributions being accessible under freedom of information legislation, or released later under the Archives Act requirements.
The looming adjustment follows a concerted push from a bipartisan group of political staff – including Brittany Higgins, who alleged she was raped by a colleague in the ministerial office of their then employer Linda Reynolds in March 2019 – to ensure that any complaints will be kept confidential.
Higgins’ decision to go public with her story has prompted other female political advisers, past and present, to consider coming forward with their own complaints. Former and current Labor staffers ventilated stories of sexual harassment and abuse while at work in a closed Facebook group at the weekend.
Australia’s sex discrimination commissioner, Kate Jenkins, with multipartisan backing, has been asked to consider any legislative, cultural, structural or other barriers to reporting allegations in parliamentary workplaces, and to examine the response and reporting mechanisms in parliamentary workplaces.
She will also consider the operation of the Members of Parliament Staff Act – the legislation under which political staffers are employed – and “assess the extent to which current legislation, policies, processes and practices promote or impede safe and respectful workplaces”.
