All members and staff of the Legislative Assembly are to undertake information and training sessions on workplace bullying and harassment.
Speaker of the Assembly, Joy Burch said the decision followed the release of the Assembly’s revised Respect in the Workplace—Bullying and Harassment Policy in May last year.
“The training, which will be undertaken via online e-learning modules, is another step towards ensuring our MLAs and staff are aware of and comply with their responsibilities in the workplace,” Ms Burch said.
“We have all seen and listened to the stories that have come out of other workplaces and we recognise that no workplace is immune from poor behaviour and we must do all we can to ensure our MLAs and staff understand their obligations and do all they can to ensure everyone feels safe and valued in their place of work,” she said.
“It is not, and has never been, acceptable to treat others poorly in a workplace, this applies to any workplace in Australia and as a parliament we have a responsibility to ensure we are leading by example.”
Ms Burch said the revised Policy reflected the findings and recommendations of the Anti-Harassment Policy Guidelines from the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians and considered matters reported in the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Respect@Work: Sexual Harassment National Injury Report 2020.
The Speaker said that, under the Policy, all members and staff were required to understand how to respond to, be aware of, and meet their responsibilities in relation to workplace bullying and harassment.
“As Speaker, I take the safety of all within the precinct very seriously and whilst I accept parliaments are unique workplaces, I expect everyone in the Assembly to be committed to providing a safe and harmonious work environment which promotes a positive workplace culture free from all forms of inappropriate behaviour, including bullying and harassment,” she said.
“As a parliament with the highest female representation, it is especially important that we lead the way on changing cultural behaviour for both women and men,” Ms Burch said.
