Viewing parliaments as workplaces, and its consequences

A focus on parliament as a workplace radically changes how these spaces are viewed. The reports of misconduct towards staff that multiplied after the arrival of #MeToo, brought a new focus on the role and responsibility of parliamentarians as employers and the status of staff as employees, present within a public sector workplace rather than in private spaces, personal to a parliamentarians. This challenged the sense of entitlement held by many parliamentarians, their seeming untrammelled power within the employment relationship and the fact their offices appeared to be unregulated, with many lacking professional practices such as job descriptions, performance management, induction and training. Once viewed through the lens of a workplace, these spaces could be seen as not only disadvantageous or discriminatory to women – staff and parliamentarians - but as injurious. The term ‘toxic parliaments’ (Sawer and Maley 2024) captures workplaces where people do not feel safe, and are not protected from harmful conduct. This new way of thinking led to major institutional change. Where rules did not exist they had to be created. Where they had been ignored, they were recognised. With no bodies to enforce those rules they had to be established. Norms and practices which seemed impervious to change are now the subject of a new project called ‘culture change’, with new actors tasked to pursue and lead the project.