Agent Of Change: Kate Jenkins
Welcome to the first of a new series of interviews in which influential Australian women tackle the big questions. First up is Kate Jenkins, the Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner, who recently launched Respect@Work, the report of the National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces.
Have recent events changed your view of the world for the better or the worse?
Overall I am optimistic about the world, how adaptable we are, how caring we can be, our sense of community, but I’m not naive about the challenges still ahead.
What has been the most hopeful thing to happen lately?
The bipartisan leadership through the National Cabinet and the effective response of the public service, business, not-for-profit organisations and the community. I have felt very grateful for our essential workers, the majority of whom have been women – health workers, carers, cleaners, teachers – selflessly putting themselves on the frontline. I’ve also loved hanging out 24/7 with my husband and children, playing board games, watching the Harry Potter movies, cooking delicious food, walking our dogs, checking in on our neighbours. My brother calls it a return to the ’70s childhood experience.
And the most disappointing?
The devastating toll of COVID-19, which has now reached (at the time of writing) more than 500,000 deaths worldwide and the economic impact that COVID-19 measures have had on women in particular. Many of the industries that have been particularly hard hit during COVID-19 have a high proportion of female workers in hospitality, arts and recreation, and retail. Before the pandemic more women than men were already in insecure employment, such as casual, temporary and short-term contract roles.
What novel, film or album do you turn to when you want to feel better?
My go-to comfort music is Abba, and if I need to choose an album it would definitely be Arrival. I was overjoyed to get Arrival for Christmas in 1976 when I was eight, although even I was a little tired of Fernando by that time – I think Countdown stopped playing it as its closing song by the end of its 14-week run at number one.
This year’s headlines have been dominated first by the bushfires, then by the floods, then by COVID-19. What important story didn’t get the coverage it deserved?
More attention should be given to women in Australian sport, as participants and leaders. This year Australia has hosted the T20 Cricket Women’s World Cup to a record crowd, won the right to host the Women’s World Cup in Basketball in 2022 and, with New Zealand, to co-host the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023. These are fantastic achievements yet during COVID, our media reverted to replays of male sporting events which felt like a backslide.
Three years after #MeToo, news of allegations surrounding the conduct of Dyson Heydon, former Justice of the High Court of Australia, shocked many of us. Did you find it as depressing as we did?
I am not surprised by any media report of sexual harassment in workplaces. Our 2018 national survey on sexual harassment in Australian workplaces found that one in three Australian workers had been harassed at work in the previous five years, with nearly three in four Australians experiencing sexual harassment in their lifetimes. For our national inquiry, I convened 60 consultations with 600 participants and received 460 submissions. Sexual harassment is still a systemic problem in Australian workplaces. It occurs in every industry, in every location, at every level, and the harms to individuals and costs to our community are huge.
The Respect@Work report highlighted the need for strengthened provisions in the Fair Work Act. What sort of changes do we need and why?
The current system is complex and confusing for both victims and employers and places a heavy burden on victims to complain. Our inquiry revealed an urgent need to shift from the current reactive complaints-based approach to one that requires a positive action from employers and a focus on prevention. Workers need more options to report and responses need to be less legalistic and have a greater focus on the welfare needs of victims. We all have a role to play to ensure our workplaces are safe, respectful and productive.
When it comes to discrimination against women, what’s one area or issue that doesn’t get discussed enough?
Too many men don’t feel the topic of gender equality affects them or involves them. I am invited to regularly speak about gender equality to audiences of passionate committed women, many of whom have direct personal experience of discrimination and violence at work, at home, in the community and online. But men need to get more involved in the conversation. Men are affected by gender inequality directly by limiting their choices – in the lower productivity of their organisations and through limiting opportunities for their loved ones. They also hold the levers to change the alarming rates of violence against women, the poor economic position of women and the barriers to women progressing into leadership roles. I would like more men to join these conversations.
Which memory do you return to again and again?
My childhood on the family orchard in Templestowe, Melbourne, where I lived until I was 12. One of my most distinct memories is going with my father to Victoria Market to sell our fruit. The truck was packed with boxes of apples, oranges, pears, apricots, cherries, quinces the night before and my father would get me up, rug me up in warm clothes and we’d drive on the deserted Eastern Freeway to set up at the market at around 3am ready for our customers, who I mostly remember as jovial Italian and Greek fruit shop owners.
What is one skill you are still trying to master?
I am an art lover. I completed an Honours degree in Fine Arts at university and I was on the board of Melbourne’s Heide Museum of Modern Art for five years, which was a great joy. I am an avid, self-taught photographer and the unofficial photographer for my 11-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son and their soccer and AFL football teams. I would love to properly learn the skills of photography. I have been enrolled in classes more than once but each time work has been so busy I’ve cancelled.
Words_ Ute Junker