This joint parliamentary committee was initiated on the recommendation of Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins in her Set the Standard report, which followed serious allegations of gender-based violence taking place inside Parliament. It follows that a significant focus of this review should be on preventing gender-based violence. However, this is not the only issue that needs to be addressed in order to create a Commonwealth Parliament that will rebuild public trust in our political system.

It’s Human Rights Law Centre’s position that codes of conduct should be introduced for parliamentarians, parliamentary staff and for the parliamentary precinct, in order to protect everyone who works or visits Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces. However, our submission primarily focuses on how a code of conduct for Commonwealth parliamentarians could be structured and enforced.

Parliamentarians are elected on the commitment that they will represent the values we, their constituents, hold. When parliamentarians fail to behave in accordance with basic levels of respect and integrity, the damage they inflict is far-reaching.

Read the Submission to the Joint Select Committee on Parliamentary Standards here.