Feminism's workplace gulags

From the start, the spin was on. The Respect@Work report included data from their 2018 National Survey which included some awkward results. Almost two in five women (39%) and just over one in four men (26%) said they experienced sexual harassment in the workplace in the previous five years - this was mainy low-grade harassment involving minor issues such as suggestive comments or jokes (27%), intrusive questions (23%), and inappropriate staring (19%) rather than the more serious unwanted touching/kissing (19%) or inappropriate physical contact (19%).

The inconvenient truth about the high levels of harassment of men was quickly brushed aside by suggesting women may engage in such behaviour as 'honorary men' to 'fit in' with the dominant culture. Besides, the report added, there was research suggesting that "women's and men's perceptions of sexual harassment by the opposite sex tend to differ, with men typically finding sexual harassment by women 'to be amusing or at least not serious'". Oh well, that's ok then. Good reason to just move on.

And move on they did – onto their real agenda, namely presenting sexual harassment as a form of gendered violence. It's a tactic that precludes any possibility of men being seen as victims. And it invites all the powerful domestic violence bureaucrats to join the celebration.

So, we find an HR industry magazine late last year quoting Patty Kinnersly, Chief Executive of the government's key domestic violence body, Our Watch, celebrating the new positive duty on employers. Kinnersly neatly explains their broader agenda: "Sexual harassment can be prevented, and change is possible… For women to be safe, they must be equal. Sexual harassment is more likely to occur where gender inequality is normalised."

Easy-peasy - workplace sexual harassment morphs into a far larger animal requiring workplaces to promote "substantive equality between men and women" - feminist code for discrimination against men. The Morrison government wouldn't come at that particular recommendation, pointing out they supported "equality of opportunity". Dreyfus had no such qualms and implemented this and all other outstanding recommendations soon after taking office.

No wonder Kinnersly is happy. The Respect@Work report pushed through more money for her organisation and other key players in the industry. Our Watch is specifically required to carry out "social change strategies" targeting young people.

All of this is now part of the positive duty on workplaces which includes:

• Employers promoting "recognition that sexual harassment is driven by gender inequality".

• Before hiring, employers are told to check "a candidate's support for gender equality".

• They are required to train board members and company officers on feminist views of gender equality and sexual harassment, and

• They are to take "reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate sex discrimination".

So, the broader feminist gender equality agenda becomes the responsibility of workplaces across the nation – how's that for a breathtaking sleight of hand?

There's more. There's always more….

Naturally the Commission has found a role for the hordes of corporate HR women all committed to the cause. Remember I wrote about the robots being used to monitor miners' bad behaviour last year?

The positive duty now includes a clear requirement on employers to monitor employees closely - small businesses should "continuously monitor conduct in workplaces" and "observe how staff interact with each other and customers". What a recipe for creating division and suspicion between employees.