The Australian Sex Discrimination Act will soon apply to politicians. Why didn’t he do it before?

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On Thursday, Morrison said at a news conference that the government plans to amend the Sex Discrimination Act under measures designed to combat sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace. He said he hoped to pass the new laws by the end of June.

Morrison said the sexual harassment was “immoral and despicable and even criminal” and “denies Australians, especially women, not only their personal safety, but their financial security by not being safe at work”.

The changes were recommended in a March 2020 report by Australian Commissioner for Sex Discrimination, Kate Jenkins. The government took more than a year to announce amendments to the law.
The push to update the law comes with the country’s political culture under control after a wave of allegations in the last two months of inappropriate sexual behavior in Parliament, including supposed harassment and rape.
In February, a former member of the Morrison Liberal Party government said she had been raped in 2019 by a colleague while inside Parliament in Canberra. Three weeks later, then-Attorney General Christian Porter revealed he had been accused of raping a woman in the late 1980s, which he flatly denied.
Morrison was heavily criticized for his response to the allegations. On March 15, thousands of women across Australia marched in protest of an end to violence against women and greater protection against sex crimes.

Zali Steggall, an independent federal politician and lawyer, said the proposed changes to the law were a positive step, but called on the government to make the changes quickly.

“The longer the delay, the longer the behavior is not captured and it is not retrospective legislation, so it should be passed as soon as possible,” he said.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks during a press conference at the House of Parliament in Canberra, Australia, on 8 April.

How the cracks were created

The Sex Discrimination Act of Australia was passed in 1984.

In a review of the law for the UNSW Law Journal on its 20th anniversary in 2004, Australian discrimination expert Beth Gaze described it as “hesitant and ambivalent”.

Gaze told CNN that under the Sex Discrimination Act, politicians and judges are not covered because they do not enter work areas where the law prohibits discrimination, leaving them out of the protections of the act. .

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Politicians’ officials are covered by independent labor legislation, Gaze said, which does not include protections against sex discrimination.

Legal experts said the loopholes in the law were likely the result of outdated and poorly drafted legislation, rather than an attempt to deliberately protect Australian politicians from allegations of sexual harassment.

Federal politician Steggall said the original wording of the 1984 Act had been outlawed, trying to establish any kind of workplace where discrimination or harassment could occur, rather than enacting a general ban. The wording of the legislation caused confusion and gray areas.

The original law “reflected the time it was created,” Australian Law Council President Dr Jacoba Brasch said in a statement. “Australian culture and attitudes have advanced and the SDA needs to be updated to reflect the contemporary expectations of the public,” he said.

Steggall said the loopholes had first been identified during an investigation in the Australian Senate in 2008, but had taken more than a decade to resolve, blaming “all sides of politics for not acting.” .

What’s in the amendments?

Morrison said Thursday he would adopt the 55 recommendations made by the commissioner, including a general ban on sex discrimination in the workplace and a national survey every four years to check progress.

The amendments proposed by the government to the Sex Discrimination Act would also make it clear to employers and employees what constitutes gender discrimination and would give whistleblowers more time to file them.

But despite Morrison’s June term, Steggall said he had drafted new laws that would be ready to be introduced once Parliament resumed in May.

His legislation would close the loopholes in the Sex Discrimination and Sexual Harassment Act in all circumstances, he said. The law would also penalize organizations or political parties that help or incite the crime.

Brasch said the success of any legislation introduced by the Morrison government would depend on how the new laws were drafted, to remove any “ambiguity” from the legislation and to ensure that public officials were “personally responsible” for the sexual harassment.

“(This is) key to ensuring that (the problem) is properly addressed and that problem behaviors do not fall into regulatory gaps,” he said.

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