Creating a New Standards Regime and a Safer Workplace for Parliament

Abstract

One of the most difficult and significant tasks that faced the Albanese Government in its first term was to respond to the recommendations of the Human Rights Commission’s 2021 Independent Review into Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces (Human Rights Commission 2021), known as the Jenkins Review. While the Review presented parliament with a clear and detailed template for change, implementing the recommendations involved major institutional reform. Consensus was needed across the parliament for the creation of a new standards regime where none had previously existed. Gaining consensus in an adversarial and low trust environment was very difficult. While multiparty parliamentary committees led the implementation, the most significant reforms were designed and driven by one of Labor’s most powerful cabinet ministers: Minister for Women, Minister for Finance and Minister for the Public Service, and Manager of Government Business in the Senate, Katy Gallagher. Show more