Thursday, 29 August 2024

 Sarah CONNOLLY (Laverton) (14:46): (797) My question is for the Minister for Industrial Relations. Just a few weeks ago the Premier announced that as part of a suite of reforms our government will be banning the use of non-disclosure agreements, or NDAs, to prevent people, especially women, from disclosing sexual assaults and other forms of sexual harassment in the workplace. These agreements, which are by design intended to protect industry and trade secrets, have for far too long been used to silence women who have been the victims of sexual assault and to protect employers who engage in this reprehensible behaviour. As the minister knows, our government has a commendable track record on protecting victim-survivors of sexual offences, including making it easier for victim-survivors to control their own story and who gets to tell it, recent laws prohibiting police reports from being subject to defamation proceedings and of course the introduction of a positive consent model for sexual offences. All of these things are aimed to crack down on sexual offences and protect people from this behaviour. My question for the minister is this: what will the banning of NDAs mean for women like those living in my electorate of Laverton?