- Richard Marles’ chief of staff resigned
- She leveled allegations of harassment against his office
The deputy prime minister’s chief of staff has made allegations of bullying in the country’s highest offices after quitting her job.
At a press conference held Thursday morning, Jo Tarnawsky said she had reported harassment and other inappropriate behavior among staff in Richard Marles’ office, and that she felt she was subsequently expelled from Parliament.
Her first complaint did not contain any allegations against Mr. Marles.
Her lawyer, Michael Bradley, told reporters that the deputy prime minister had called for Ms. Tarnawsky to be fired after she released the report.
“So what happened was that Jo raised a legitimate concern about issues within the office of the Deputy Prime Minister, including bullying behavior, and the response to that was to effectively drive her out of her job,” he said.
‘Jo accepts that it is a relationship of trust, and if that trust is not there, of course it cannot continue.
“She is just like any employee in the country, she is entitled to fair treatment and procedural fairness and her rights as an employee have not been respected.”
Ms Tarnawsky called on the Prime Minister to take action on her allegations.
The deputy prime minister’s chief of staff (pictured, Richard Marles) has made surprising allegations of bullying in the country’s highest offices after quitting her job
At a press conference held Thursday morning, Jo Tarnawsky said she had reported harassment and other inappropriate behavior among staff in Richard Marles’ office, and that she felt she was subsequently expelled from Parliament.
“The Prime Minister has committed the Government to parliamentary reform in the workplace, to ensuring the safety of women in this building and to higher standards in the ministerial code of conduct,” Ms Tarnawsky said.
‘I have asked the Prime Minister, I have asked the Prime Minister to fully comply with these obligations. No political party is immune to bad behavior in the workplace, but the real test is how they handle it when it happens.”
The allegations come after the government passed legislation establishing a new, independent body to crack down on bad behavior in parliament.
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission (IPSC) launched on October 1.
MPs also voted yesterday to set up a joint committee on parliamentary standards to oversee the new codes of conduct.
There’s more to come.
