There’s No Excuse: Public Servants Will Not Get Away with Sexual Harassment Anymore

Australia is massively changing its workplace laws and calling off exemptions for judges and politicians from such complaints as sexual harassment, to counter mistreatment of staff, promote gender discrimination, and encourage victims to speak out.

“Sexual harassment is unacceptable,” says Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison. “Not only is it immoral, despicable, and even criminal, but it denies Australians, especially women, not just their personal security but their economic security by not being safe at work.”

Fifty-five recommendations, including workplace genre discrimination, mandatory training of company directors, and improved coordination between complaint-handling agencies, have been made by Australia’s sex discrimination commissioner, and the Prime Minister vowed to adopt them all. Up until now, judges and politicians were exempted because of a legal loophole: they couldn’t be charged since they are not employers.