Federal politicians could have their pay docked by up to five per cent for serious breaches of workplace rules, under draft laws set to be considered by parliament.
The federal government is working with Liberal, Nationals and Greens MPs to establish a new standards body within the parliament, responsible for investigating incidents and enforcing codes of conduct for MPs and staff.
Parliament's new codes of conduct, which were adopted early last year, set out rules against behaviour like bullying, harassment, discrimination and sexual harassment or assault.
Documents leaked to Nine Newspapers indicate the cross-party working group is considering empowering the new standards body to hand down a range of sanctions to politicians it finds have breached the rules.
It suggests sanctions for MPs could include a reprimand, training or professional development, or a fine of between two to five per cent of their annual salary.
A five per cent fine would be worth more than $10,000 to an ordinary backbench MP.
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission (IPSC) could also recommend parliament itself impose further sanctions, like dropping politicians from committee roles, or even suspending them from the parliament.
However, only the parliament itself has the power to make those sorts of decisions about an MP.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-02/federal-politicians-could-see-pay-docked-for-misbehaving/103657308
the matters have been found in all political parties. it certainly isn't just Lib or Lab.
and such penalties may be pretty pathetic, inadequate as a deterrent, but it will give complainants a sense that there may be consequences for misbehaviour and mistreating staff.
make the max penalty 50% and MPs will certainly sit up and behave better.
they don't seem to respond to professional training.
