Page 634 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 30 March 2021
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private, and online. We must do better, and we must be better. As men, we must own that this problem is caused by our own privilege, and our behaviour must change. This is not an issue for women to fix; this is an issue for all of us.
Bullying, harassment and sexual harassment are never okay. They are all psychological health hazards in the workplace that must be managed under work health and safety duties and obligations. The ACT government is committed to ensuring the health and safety of workers in the workplace. The ACT has adopted the nationally agreed model work health and safety laws and participates at the national level to ensure that the model laws are maintained and effective.
While the Work Health and Safety Act itself clearly defines the health of workers to include psychological health, more work needs to be done to ensure that there is a focus on addressing psychological health risks or hazards under the supporting work health and safety regulations and codes of practice.
In line with model work health and safety laws, the ACT’s Work Health and Safety Act requires all workplaces to manage the health and safety risks of workplace sexual harassment. A person conducting a business or undertaking has the primary duty to ensure that workers and other people are not exposed to psychological health and safety risks at work. This duty requires, where practicable, the elimination of exposure to psychosocial hazards, including sexual harassment.
Safe Work Australia has published guidance material to help duty holders to understand their obligations. This includes the national guide on work-related psychological health and safety. Safe Work Australia has also published a guide to preventing workplace sexual harassment, to provide detailed information for employers on practical ways to prevent sexual harassment at work. If the risk of gender violence or sexual harassment is identified by a PCBU, a PCBU must, under the model work health and safety laws, implement controls to eliminate or minimise those risks. WorkSafe ACT provides links to the Safe Work Australia guidance material for all PCBUs operating in the ACT.
In 2020 the Australian Human Rights Commission released its report Respect@Work: National inquiry into sexual harassment in Australian workplaces. In its report, the commission stressed that sexual harassment is not a women’s issue; it is a societal issue, which every Australian, and every Australian workplace, can contribute to addressing. The commission recommended that work health and safety ministers agree to amend the model work health and safety regulations to deal with psychological health. It also recommended the development of guidelines on sexual harassment, with a view to informing the development of a code of practice on sexual harassment. Ms Orr’s motion today addresses these important recommendations. It is important that we have a code of practice, because a code is admissible in court. We need strong protections for women that allow for just outcomes to be pursued.
The commission further recommended that the Sex Discrimination Act be amended to introduce a positive duty on all employers to take responsible and proportionate measures to eliminate sex discrimination, sexual harassment and victimisation. This recommendation is in addition to the recommendation that the Sex Discrimination Act
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