Sydney.- The Australian government announced on Thursday that it will amend its sex discrimination law to allow judges and legislators to be denounced, weeks after a scandal of alleged violations broke out in Parliament and even implicated a member of the Cabinet.
Legislators and judges, who are currently under legal protection that leaves them immune from sexual complaints, “will be subject to the law like anyone else, which means that they will be subject to the same consequences,” the prosecutor told the media. Australian General Michaelia Cash explaining the legislative proposal on workplace sexual harassment.
The amendments, which will go before Parliament this year, are part of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government response to 55 recommendations in a report on Respect for Labor that it received in January.
The Australian government’s announcement comes shortly after the political scandal that erupted in mid-February when Brittany Higgins, a former adviser to Morrison’s party, reported that she was raped in 2019 by a co-worker in an office in Parliament.
In addition to three other complaints against this alleged rapist, another was raised against the then Attorney General Christian Porter, now Minister of Industry, for an alleged violation of more than 30 years ago, which he denies and which the Police filed for lack of evidence after the death in 2020 of the alleged victim.
Morrison, who rebuilt his Cabinet at the end of March after the scandal, pointed out that the response to the report is “a roadmap for respect” and that it is intended to “create a culture of respectful conduct in Australian workplaces.” .
According to data from the Australian Human Rights Commission, 39% of women and 26% of men have suffered workplace sexual harassment, conduct that the Australian president called “unacceptable, immoral, despicable and even criminal.”
.