Proposed legislation would see MPs penalised for bad behaviour

Federal MP's could be fined or suspended for bad behaviour under laws being introduced to parliament today.

Transcript

00:00Well, this is something that's been worked on for some years in response to a report

00:06that was done by the former Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins.

00:10Now, she was reporting in the wake of allegations from Brittany Higgins, the former Liberal

00:17staffer who claimed that she was raped in Parliament House in 2021.

00:22And that report spoke to MPs and staffers who were very concerned about issues of gender

00:28inequality and sexism in Parliament House, of bullying and harassment and claims of sexual

00:35harassment as well.

00:36So there has been some changes that the government has made to the process of discipline essentially

00:43for MPs and staffers.

00:46Because one of the issues has been that MPs essentially run their own office, they're

00:50not employed by anyone.

00:51And so it's been difficult to put any consequences in place for people who were found to have

00:58behaved badly.

00:59So the government has announced today it will put into law the Independent Parliamentary

01:05Standards Commission that will set a workplace code of conduct and it will also act as a

01:11regulator. So MPs, for example, an MP who had a complaint against them would have to

01:17go before a commissioner and that commissioner would then decide whether or not to

01:22progress that complaint.

01:24And the sorts of sanctions that are available are things like docking 5 per cent pay, even

01:30being able to vote in the House to suspend a member of Parliament from the parliamentary

01:36process. So those laws, again, need to be agreed to by the coalition.

01:40But they are the proposals that Labor is putting forward.