Australia’s Sex Discrimination Act will soon apply to politicians. Why not sooner?

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

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

The changes were recommended in a March 2020 report from Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins. It took the government more than a year to announce changes to the law.
The push to update the law comes with the country’s political culture under scrutiny following a wave of allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior in Parliament in the past two months, including alleged harassment and rape.
In February, a former employee of Morrison’s ruling Liberal Party said she had been raped by a colleague in 2019 while at Parliament House in Canberra. Three weeks later, then Attorney General Christian Porter revealed that he had been charged with raping a woman in the late 1980s, which he vehemently denied.
Morrison was strongly criticized for his response to the charges. On March 15, thousands of women marched across Australia in protest to call for an end to violence against women and more protection against sex crimes.

Zali Steggall, an independent federal politician and attorney, said the proposed legislative changes were a positive step, but she called on the government to implement the changes quickly.

“The longer the delay, the longer the behavior goes undetected, and this is not retroactive legislation, so it should be passed as soon as possible,” she said.

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

How the loopholes were made

Australia’s Sex Discrimination Act was passed in 1984.

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

Gaze told CNN that politicians and judges are not covered by the Sex Discrimination Act because they do not fall within the areas of work where the law prohibits discrimination – thus outside the protections of the law.

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Politician executives are covered by separate labor laws, Gaze said, which offers no protection against gender discrimination.

Legal experts said the loopholes were likely the result of outdated and poorly worded legislation, and not an attempt to deliberately protect Australian politicians from allegations of sexual harassment.

Federal politician Steggall said the original wording of the 1984 law had been compelling, trying to define any type of workplace where discrimination or harassment could occur, rather than issuing a blanket ban. The wording of the legislation created confusion and gray areas.

The original law “reflected the time it was created,” said Australian Legal Council president Dr. Jacoba Brasch, in a statement. “Australian culture and attitudes have moved on and the SDA needs to be updated to reflect today’s public expectations,” she said.

Steggall said the loopholes were first identified during a 2008 Australian Senate investigation, but it took more than a decade to resolve, blaming “all sides of politics” for failure to act.

What’s in the changes?

Morrison said on Thursday that he would adopt all 55 of the commissioner’s recommendations, including a blanket ban on sex discrimination in the workplace and a national survey every four years to monitor progress.

The government’s proposed changes to the Sex Discrimination Act would also make it clearer to employers and employees what gender discrimination is, and give complainants more time to file a case.

But despite Morrison’s time frame in June, Steggall said she had drafted new laws that were ready to be enacted once parliament resumes in May.

Her legislation would close loopholes in the Sex Discrimination Act and sexual harassment under any circumstances, she said. The law would also punish organizations or political parties that aid or are complicit in the crime.

Brasch said the success of any legislation introduced by the Morrison administration depends on how the new laws are formulated, to erase any “ambiguity” in the legislation and ensure that officials are “personally accountable”. for sexual harassment.

“(This is) the key to ensuring that (the problem) is properly addressed, and that problematic behavior does not fall into regulatory gaps,” she said.

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