Sex Discrimination and Fair Work (Respect at Work) Amendment Bill 2021

The majority voted against amendments introduced by NSW Senator Jenny McAllister (Labor), which means they failed.

What do the amendments do?

There were three separate sheets of amendments.

Senator McAllister explained that sheet 1385 was introduced to implement recommendation 23 of the Respect@Work report, which is:

Amend the Australian Human Rights Commission Act to allow unions and other representative groups to bring representative claims to court, consistent with the existing provisions in the Australian Human Rights Commission Act that allow unions and other representative groups to bring a representative complaint to the Commission.

In respect to sheet 1381, she said that:

These amendments perform a very important role in the way that workplace sexual harassment and sex based harassment are dealt with under the Fair Work Act. Workers who are sexually harassed do need access to a fair, effective and efficient complaints mechanism, and this set of amendments would establish this.

And in respect to sheet 1399, she said that:

These amendments are quite straightforward. They pick up two recommendations made by the Australian Human Rights Commission in their submission to the Senate inquiry on this bill. In their submission, the commission note that the bill explicitly provides that not only sexual harassment but also other sex based harassment is prohibited. This reflects the experience of many people who experience harassment at work that is on the basis of their sex but is not sexual in nature. The Human Rights Commission said this:

The important changes in the Bill to the Fair Work Act (and regulations) in relation to sexual harassment should also encompass the new legislative concept of sex-based harassment. That is, the Fair Work Commission should be able to issue a 'stop sex-based harassment order' and employers should be given the confidence that if an employee engages in sex-based harassment this will be a valid reason for the termination of their employment.

Amendment text

The amendment text is available on sheets 1381, 1385 and 1399.