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Speaker 1: Already and this is the DAILYA.

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Speaker 2: This is the Daily ohs oh, now it makes sense.

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Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Thursday,

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Speaker 2: the twenty second of August.

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Speaker 1: I'm emma, i'm zara.

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Speaker 2: Federal politicians found to have sexually harassed, assaulted or bullied

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Speaker 2: staff could be fined up to five percent of their

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Speaker 2: salary under new draft laws. Legislation tabled in Parliament this

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Speaker 2: week comes nearly three years after a workplace review detailed

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Speaker 2: a lack of clear standards of conduct, limited accountability and

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Speaker 2: power imbalances for those within the so called Canberra Bubble.

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Speaker 2: We'll tell you all about the government's new proposal and

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Speaker 2: what it means for those who work in Parliament. But first, Sara,

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Speaker 2: what's making headlines.

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Speaker 1: The CEO of Australia's National Science Agency, the CSIRO, has

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Speaker 1: confirmed up to five hundred jobs will be lost as

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Speaker 1: part of efforts to support the CSIRO's financial sustainability. Staff

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Speaker 1: raise concerns of widespread job cuts earlier this month, when

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Speaker 1: the CSIRO's staff Association called on Industry and Science Minister

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Speaker 1: At Husick to intervene. The association said the planned restructure

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Speaker 1: could potentially cripple Research CSIRO chief executive Doug Hilton said

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Speaker 1: between three hundred and seventy five five hundred rolls will

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Speaker 1: be impacted.

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Speaker 2: A date has been set in the murder trial of

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Speaker 2: the Victorian woman accused of serving a deadly beef Wellington

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Speaker 2: laced with poisonous mushrooms. Erin Patterson will face court in

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Speaker 2: April twenty twenty five, where she will plead not guilty

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Speaker 2: to three murder charges. Patterson is also charged with the

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Speaker 2: attempted murder of her ex husband, who fell critically ill

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Speaker 2: after consuming the same meal in July twenty twenty three.

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Speaker 2: Patterson appeared in Victoria's Supreme Court yesterday for the first

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Speaker 2: of several pre trial hearings.

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Speaker 1: Vice President Kamala Harris has formally accepted her party's nomination

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Speaker 1: to run for president after receiving enough delegates at the

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Speaker 1: Democratic National Convention. Day two of the DNC in Chicago

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Speaker 1: included speeches from both former President Barack Obama and former

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Speaker 1: First Lady Michelle Obama. Harris appeared at the convention via

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Speaker 1: video to accept the nomination as she was campaigning in

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Speaker 1: another state with her running mate Tim Wolls. Harris's confirmation

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Speaker 1: makes her the first black and South Asian woman to

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Speaker 1: lead a major party ticket.

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Speaker 2: And Today's Good News and international team of scientists have

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Speaker 2: demonstrated a new environmentally sustainable way to produce vitamin B twelve.

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Speaker 2: At least a billion people are deficient in vitamin B

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Speaker 2: twelve worldwide. Previous studies have shown that spirellina contains B twelve,

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Speaker 2: but not in a form humans can digest. Now, scientists

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Speaker 2: have used special lights in Iceland to grow a kind

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Speaker 2: of spirellina that has as much B twelve in it

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Speaker 2: as beef and can be digested by people. They've suggested

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Speaker 2: that by reallocating some energy use, Iceland could grow enough

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Speaker 2: of this spirillina to stop nearly fourteen million children from

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Speaker 2: becoming B twelve deficient. Gender inequality, a lack of accountability,

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Speaker 2: entitlement and exclusion. These are some of the key contributors

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Speaker 2: to workplace bullying, sexual harassment and sexual assault and their

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Speaker 2: risk factors that were found to be very much present

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Speaker 2: in a twenty twenty one review of the workplace culture

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Speaker 2: within Parliament House.

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Speaker 1: This workplace Culture review, I mean we've spoken about a

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Speaker 1: number of times. It was a huge story in the media.

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Speaker 1: I think many people who had worked in and around

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Speaker 1: Parliament House knew this was the case, but it certainly

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Speaker 1: didn't get the sort of coverage or attention that perhaps

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Speaker 1: was necessary. Can you just run us through what we

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Speaker 1: need to know about how we actually got to the

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Speaker 1: stage of having to have a review about the workplace

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Speaker 1: culture of Parliament House. Yep.

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Speaker 2: So there are thousands of people who work in Parliament House,

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Speaker 2: from senior ministers to their.

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Speaker 1: Staffers, many of whom are very young.

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Speaker 2: Exactly, many of whom are very young, and a huge

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Speaker 2: sort of difference in the power of that group of staffers,

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Speaker 2: I suppose, so from those young workers right to the

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Speaker 2: top of the Prime Minister and the Opposition leader. So

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Speaker 2: it's not exactly what you would call a typical workplace.

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Speaker 2: And as you mentioned, the conversation around what kind of

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Speaker 2: workplace it is really intensified in twenty twenty one, and

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Speaker 2: that's when former Liberal staffer Britney Higgins went public with

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Speaker 2: allegations that she was raped inside Parliament House. In twenty nineteen,

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Speaker 2: after those revelations came to light, there was a lot

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Speaker 2: of criticism around Parliament as being this kind of unregulated

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Speaker 2: wild West of workplaces. Culminated in the then coalition government

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Speaker 2: announcing a formal review into Parliament's workplace culture.

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Speaker 1: And that review covered a whole host of things. You know.

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Speaker 1: One of the things that it identified is how prevalent

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Speaker 1: drinking alcohol is in Parliament House. If anyone's ever been

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Speaker 1: there for a meeting, you know, or some sort of gathering,

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Speaker 1: there is usually alcohol involved, which is quite rare for

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Speaker 1: you know, a normal workplace, let alone somewhere where democracy

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Speaker 1: is meant to be thriving. So what were some of

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Speaker 1: the other things that that review ended up discovering.

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Speaker 2: So that review was called the Set the Standard Review,

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Speaker 2: and it received contributions from more than seventeen hundred individuals

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Speaker 2: to represent a quote comprehensive understanding of the culture within

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Speaker 2: Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces. Its final report in November twenty twenty one,

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Speaker 2: found that more than one in two people had experienced

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Speaker 2: at least one incident of bullying, sexual harassment, or actual

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Speaker 2: or attempted sexual assault during their time I'm working in Parliament.

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Speaker 1: That is an absolutely devastating statistic.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a staggering figure and made a lot

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Speaker 2: of headlines at the time. It made twenty eight recommendations

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Speaker 2: to introduce new standards into the parliamentary workplace basically to

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Speaker 2: clean things up, and that included things like better training,

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Speaker 2: a centralized human resources office or hub, and one of

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Speaker 2: the recommendations called for an independent workplace body, or what

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Speaker 2: it called an Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission to enforce behavior

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Speaker 2: codes for MPs. It called to this initiative to be

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Speaker 2: established within twelve months of November twenty twenty one, and

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Speaker 2: three years later legislation to do this has now been

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Speaker 2: tabled in Parliament.

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Speaker 1: We've spoken about deadlines on the podcast this week. Let's

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Speaker 1: say that's probably missing a deadline yet again. But I

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Speaker 1: just want to recap what it is we've said, because

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Speaker 1: I think one of the really unique parts of Parliament

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Speaker 1: that this report picked up on and this solution is

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Speaker 1: trying to fix, is that there was just no HR.

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Speaker 1: If you have a problem, there was no senior HR

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Speaker 1: person for you to turn to and say I've been

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Speaker 1: sexually harassed or I've been bullied. And so this specific

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Speaker 1: measure was aimed at addressing that, right yep.

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Speaker 2: So there are separate measures broadly aimed at addressing that,

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Speaker 2: and we'll get to one of them later, which was

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Speaker 2: about this concept of centralizing a Department to deal with

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Speaker 2: staffing and culture issues and that there wasn't that kind

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Speaker 2: of hub like there are in other workplaces for people

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Speaker 2: in Parliament. But this commission, specifically the one that we're

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Speaker 2: talking about in terms of what's been tabled in Parliament

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Speaker 2: this week, would be tasked with investigating misconduct complaints as

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Speaker 2: an impartial authority, so it would have powers to investigate

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Speaker 2: complaints against MPs, senators and political staffers to ensure that

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Speaker 2: quote both staff and parliamentarians are held to account for

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Speaker 2: their behavior. So this is all from the record mandations

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Speaker 2: of that report. This Standards Commission would be specifically tasked

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Speaker 2: with investigating misconduct complaints as an impartial authority, so it

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Speaker 2: would have powers to investigate complaints against MPs, senators, political

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Speaker 2: staffers to ensure that quote both staff and parliamentarians are

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Speaker 2: held to account for their behavior. And the iPSC would

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Speaker 2: also be able to determine and enforce relevant sanctions for breaches.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so that's the really important part here, which is

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Speaker 1: that there are ramifications and there are tools that this

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Speaker 1: new commission can actually deploy if they investigate something and

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Speaker 1: find that there has been wrongdoing. What are some of

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Speaker 1: those sanctions, as you put it, what are some of

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Speaker 1: the penalties that we're talking about here.

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Speaker 2: So, under draft legislation tabled this week, MPs and senators

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Speaker 2: face penalties for misconduct, including a fine that would be

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Speaker 2: worth two to five percent of their annual salary. Okay,

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Speaker 2: suspension from parliament, so being kicked out for a designated period.

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Speaker 1: I mean, just sorry, I know I'm being annoying and interrupting,

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Speaker 1: but what's so interesting here is that in a normal

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Speaker 1: workplace you would lose your job, but here they are

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Speaker 1: elected officials, so exactly what you could actually do is

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Speaker 1: so limited.

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Speaker 2: It is limited, and that's why I think we're seeing

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Speaker 2: a kind of broad scope of sanctions, and it will

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Speaker 2: be up to this body to determine kind of how

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Speaker 2: far they take that. There's also a penalty that would

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Speaker 2: include removing MP's and senators from any committees that they

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Speaker 2: might serve on. Now, something I didn't realize was that

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Speaker 2: parliamentarians who do serve on committees actually get paid more

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Speaker 2: to take on those extra responsibilities. So that sort of

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Speaker 2: sounds like a kind of more administrative sanction, but it

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Speaker 2: would also be a financial penalty, and in terms of

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Speaker 2: what that other fine the two to five percent of

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Speaker 2: the annual pay might actually look like in real terms,

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Speaker 2: the minimum annual salary of a parliamentarian is over two

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Speaker 2: hundred and thirty three thousand dollars per year, so two

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Speaker 2: percent is four and a half grand, five percent is

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Speaker 2: over eleven thousand dollars, So we're talking of at minimum

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Speaker 2: a penalty of between four thousand and eleven thousand dollars

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Speaker 2: for some parliamentarians now. Katie Gallaher, she is the Minister

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Speaker 2: for Finance, She said that the penalty scheme is designed

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Speaker 2: to act as a significant deterrent for members of Parliament

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Speaker 2: and senators to behave badly. So basically the hope is

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Speaker 2: that these penalties would not have to be imposed, but

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Speaker 2: by existing they will encourage parliamentarians to behave professionally.

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Speaker 1: A very broad term there. What does behave professionally mean?

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Speaker 1: Like what are the sorts of breaches that we're talking

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Speaker 1: about these penalties having to apply for.

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Speaker 2: So the body will outline and enforce a specific behavior

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Speaker 2: code that will set out the sort of workplace behavioral

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Speaker 2: requirements and this will be about fostering respectful and inclusive workplace,

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Speaker 2: including a ban on bullying, harassment, assault, sexual harassment and discrimination.

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Speaker 2: That behavior Code will be updated after every federal election,

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Speaker 2: so the government of the day can influence what they

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Speaker 2: believe qualifies as misconducts Okay, the whole process will be

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Speaker 2: largely confidential. The only time that we the public will

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Speaker 2: ever hear about any kind of sanctions or investigations is

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Speaker 2: if those investigations meet a public interest test. So, for example,

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Speaker 2: if a really senior cabinet minister, your senior leader, is

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Speaker 2: found to have been in breach of the behavior Code

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Speaker 2: and they're handed down a big penalty, we'll probably hear

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Speaker 2: about that.

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Speaker 1: When I hear this, I do just think that there

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Speaker 1: is a lot of kind of subjectivity to it, to

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Speaker 1: defining what is good and not good behavior, to defining

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Speaker 1: what's in the public interest versus what isn't. I imagine

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Speaker 1: that this will take quite a bit of time to

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Speaker 1: actually nut out and understand how it works in practice.

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Speaker 1: And as you already identified, there's an election coming up,

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Speaker 1: so it could all change then again from hypothetically May

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Speaker 1: next year, and you know, for staffers in the building,

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Speaker 1: it could be quite challenging to try and navigate this.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it sounds like there is a fair bit of

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Speaker 2: gray in all of this, But I think what Senator

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Speaker 2: Gallaher kind of said about the initiative speaks to the

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Speaker 2: goodwill I suppose that senior leaders have about cleaning up

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Speaker 2: the culture of the workplace in Parliament. She said that

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Speaker 2: the twenty twenty one set the Standard Report, laid bare

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Speaker 2: the serious issues of bullying, sexual harassment and sexual assault

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Speaker 2: at parliamentary workplaces, and we're trying to change that.

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Speaker 1: And you mentioned at the top that this is just

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Speaker 1: a draft proposal at the moment. Is this bill expected

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Speaker 1: to pass Parliament, So it.

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Speaker 2: Will need either support from the Opposition or the Greens

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Speaker 2: and a handful of cross benches to get through Parliament.

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Speaker 2: In terms of what we know about current support across parliament,

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Speaker 2: Shadow Minister for Women Susan Lee said she will closely

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Speaker 2: consider the legislation before deciding whether to support it. The

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Speaker 2: Greens have said they will support the legislation. Green spokesperson

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Speaker 2: for Women, Senator Larissa Waters, has welcomed the proposal. She

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Speaker 2: said she wanted to see the commission introduced without further

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Speaker 2: delay and that women and staff have been unsafe in

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Speaker 2: Parliament for far too long. As I mentioned those recommendations

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Speaker 2: that we discussed in terms of where this has all

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Speaker 2: come from. That was part of a review launched under

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Speaker 2: the previous government and there has been broad kind of

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Speaker 2: bipartisan support for some of the recommendations. Gallagher has said

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Speaker 2: that improving the cultural of parliament requires a cross party effort.

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Speaker 1: It does feel like it's a bit beyond politics exactly.

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Speaker 2: So if it passes, which it is expected to, the

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Speaker 2: iPSC would be operational from the first of October this year.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so that commission that we've just spoken about, that

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Speaker 1: would come into act in just a few months if

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Speaker 1: your passes Parliament, which we are expecting to be the case,

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Speaker 1: before we wrap up. Earlier in the pod, you mentioned

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Speaker 1: that there were twenty eight recommendations in that initial review

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Speaker 1: that was prompted by Britney Higgins's allegations. What else has

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Speaker 1: happened since that review was handed down. We know it's

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Speaker 1: been years and that this is now being acted upon.

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Speaker 1: What about the other recommendations?

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Speaker 2: Yep, So one of the big ones we were talking about,

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Speaker 2: that kind of traditional HR department. Since the review was

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Speaker 2: handed down, there is a government agency that has been created.

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Speaker 2: It's called the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service. It now offers

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Speaker 2: staff HR advice, twenty four to seven counseling support. It

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Speaker 2: facilitates professional learning programs and things like respect and safety

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Speaker 2: training for safety in the workplace. Now, this workplace support

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Speaker 2: service is important to the draft legislation that we've just

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Speaker 2: discussed because some misconduct complaints will end up being referred

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Speaker 2: to that agency. So there will be complaints that are

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Speaker 2: escalated that might end up in breaches and sanctions and

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Speaker 2: penalties being handed out, but there will be others that

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Speaker 2: go to this sort of HR body because they will

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Speaker 2: work to kind of mediate those complaints. So the parties

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Speaker 2: involved might be brought together to discuss improvements in workplace

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Speaker 2: relations and that will be managed by this sort of

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Speaker 2: HR department. More broadly speaking, though, I think in twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty one we saw a really big shift, not just

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Speaker 2: inside Parliament but in the kind of broader camera bubble. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: outside of the camera bubble. We all started talking about it,

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Speaker 2: and there has certainly been a kind of pendulum swing

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Speaker 2: towards closer scrutiny over what's going on within the walls

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Speaker 2: of Parliament, what kind of a workplace is it? And

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Speaker 2: I think that that has been a change for good

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Speaker 2: and is not going away. So it certainly seems like

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Speaker 2: all eyes are on Parliament and on that place to

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Speaker 2: do better and to become a healthier, happier workplace. So

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Speaker 2: we'll see what happens next.

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Speaker 1: Well, I'm actually heading into Parliament today, so I'll let

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Speaker 1: you know if anything.

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Speaker 2: Has trained hash fun Zarah.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of

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Speaker 1: The Daily Os. If you learnt something new about how

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Speaker 1: Parliament House functions, you can send this to a friend

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Speaker 1: and tell them to follow. That is the way that

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Speaker 1: we hear at the Daly Oos can grow our podcasts

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Speaker 1: and grow our small business. That's all we've got time

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Speaker 1: for today, but we will be back again tomorrow. See Yeah.

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Speaker 1: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda

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Speaker 1: Bungelung calcotton woman from Gadighol Country. The Daily oz acknowledges

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Speaker 1: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the

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Speaker 1: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres

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Speaker 1: Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the

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Speaker 1: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.