Announcement date
27 September 2022
Link to announcement https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r6916
Problem being addressed
In March 2020, the Australian Human Rights Commission released the Respect@Work: National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces Report 2020 (Respect@Work Report), which found that 33 per cent of Australian employees have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace in the past five years (39 per cent of women and 26 per cent of men). While employees in some types of workplaces were more likely to experience harassment than others, the Respect@Work Report concluded that sexual harassment 'occurs in every industry, in every location and at every level, in Australian workplaces.'
In response to these findings, the Respect@Work Report made 55 recommendations addressed to all levels of government, independent government agencies, the private sector, and the community to prevent and respond to sexual harassment in Australian workplaces. The Government has committed to fully implementing all recommendations of the Respect@Work Report.
Proposal
The Government has introduced the Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Bill 2022 which would implement seven of the recommendations from the Respect@Work Report regarding discrimination and workplace gender equality, including:
- introducing a positive duty on employers to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate specified forms of unlawful sex discrimination, including sexual harassment, as far as possible, and
- providing the Australian Human Rights Commission with new functions to assess and enforce compliance with the positive duty.
Assessed RIS outcome
Independent review
Assessment comments
Consistent with the Government's Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) requirements, the Respect@Work Report has been certified by the Attorney-General's Department as meeting the requirements of a RIS. The Office of Best Practice Regulation (OBPR) does not assess the quality of independent reviews and RIS-like documents used in lieu of a RIS, but does assess whether the options analysed in the independent review are relevant to the regulatory proposal. The OBPR assessed that the options analysed in the independent review are sufficiently relevant to the regulatory proposal.
Regulatory burden
The Attorney-General's Department estimates the average annual regulatory cost associated with the enforceable positive duty at $226.4 million. These costs relate to minor start-up costs to businesses associated with understanding the legislative changes and updating policies and training materials where required.