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As we understand it, Mr Speaker, a series of allegations of sexual harassment have been made against the Deputy Chief Minister. The Minister and the complainant have sought to resolve these matters through conciliation and that process has failed. It may soon be up to the Human Rights Office to seek a fair and just resolution of this matter. It is not and should not be up to this Assembly or members of this Assembly to become involved in resolving the matter. The Greens also encourage the Assembly to consider a review of the processes and resourcing of the Human Rights Office.

Mr Speaker, the Greens believe that it is important that this matter be debated in the Assembly because of the issues it raises. Sexual harassment allegations are very serious. In the ACT it is imperative that we take a firm stand against sexual harassment and abuse. Sexual harassment and abuse is an issue that we as a society are only just coming to terms with. Ten years ago this allegation would not have been taken seriously. It would have been seen as normal behaviour even though the people, mostly women, subjected to it suffered considerably. Today it cannot and should not be downplayed.

I was shocked that in a paper presented at the recent ACT Women’s Justice Forum it was stated by Patricia Easteal that her two-year period of research on marital murder showed that in Australia a woman dies at the hands of her husband, on average, once every five days. In a substantial proportion of these cases there is a history of domestic violence. While the ACT has more effective processes to deal with domestic violence than do many other regions, what is clear is that we have a problem and that, as leaders in our society, we have a clear responsibility to set a high standard regarding matters of sexual abuse of any kind, because, Mr Speaker, sexual abuse and sexual harassment are forms of violence.

One of the arguments put forward is that there has been only one allegation. The fact that there has been only one allegation does not lessen the weight of that allegation or the seriousness of it as seen by either the complainant or the community. It is not up to this Assembly to decide whether one allegation or half-a-dozen allegations constitute grounds for being stood aside. We are not here to judge guilt; we are here to look at what is the appropriate response by the Chief Minister when an allegation of this kind is levelled at one of her Ministers. The Greens believe that the appropriate response is for the Chief Minister to ask her deputy to stand aside. Standing aside is not an admission of guilt. Standing aside is a means by which Mr De Domenico and the Government can show that they respect community values, they respect the standing of the Assembly and, most importantly, they wish to encourage members of the community to fight against sexual harassment and abuse so that as a community we can continue to deal with this issue.

Mr Speaker, I quote from the ministerial code of conduct presented to the Assembly by the Chief Minister a few weeks ago:

... Ministers must accept standards of conduct which are different from those applying to others having office in the Assembly or the wider community.

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