Inquiry into the Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Bill 2022

This submission is being made by The National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW).

NFAW is dedicated to promoting and protecting the interests of Australian women, including intellectual, cultural, political, social, economic, legal, industrial and domestic spheres, and ensuring that the aims and ideals of the women’s movement and its collective wisdom are handed on to new generations of women. NFAW is a feminist organisation, independent of party politics and working in partnership with other women’s organisations.

We welcome the Committee’s invitation to comment on the Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Bill 2022. The Bill straight forwardly embraces the suite of recommendations made by NFAW and other commentators from the sector on remedying the deficiencies of the previous Government’s response to Respect@Work. In particular we welcome the recognition of the nature and impact of systemic discrimination, the need for substantive equality, and the measures required to progressively bring it about.

Our key remaining concern in this context is that the Bill reproduces the silences in Respect@Work about the role of WGEA minimum standards in driving substantive equality. Dovetailing the Bill’s proposed amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (SD Act) with the Workplace Gender EqualityAct (WGE Act) would greatly increase their individual effectiveness in preventing and responding to systemic discrimination, and would provide more clarity for employers about the operation of the regime overall.

Our remaining concerns address operational matters associated with the proposed sex-based harassment provisions.

Finally, recognising the Government’s commitment in Australian Women.Labor’s Plan forA Better Future to implement all the recommendations of Respect@Work, we also raise the issue of those recommendations that are still outstanding.