Senator CROSSIN (6:57 PM) —I rise tonight to speak for just a few minutes on this report. From memory, it was about a year ago today that this report was commissioned by the Attorney-General. I want to put on record tonight that the referral of this matter to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission was, I believe, welcomed by all parties in this Senate. I also want to acknowledge that the government saw that there was a need to do something about this matter and to inquire into it.

It is quite a comprehensive report. In the short time it has been out today, I have not had a chance to read all of it, but I am more than familiar with some of the issues in relation to pregnancy in the workplace. These issues basically stem from the problem that employers these days, as much as trade unions or even employees, still do not understand what the real issues are in relation to women in the workplace—particularly women who are pregnant. There are many examples in the report where women have been discriminated against due to a lack of action and knowledge on the employer's part. Sometimes—and I am sorry to say this, in this day and age—it is probably due to ignorance on the part of employers, although some employers quite clearly deliberately and wilfully seek to discriminate against women in the workplace, and some women are not empowered and do not know what they can do about it.

There are stories about women not being employed in a job because they are pregnant, women not being hired to fulfil certain roles within a workplace in case they get pregnant and women who become pregnant but are too frightened to tell their boss about it until it is fairly obvious they are carrying a child for fear of retribution. Women can be quite sick in the first trimester of their pregnancy and may need to use their sick leave. This is one area where our industrial awards do not recognise or acknowledge that there can be a difference between the sick leave men and women take. A woman may take sick leave when she is pregnant and a man would never access his sick leave for those sorts of reasons. At the launch of this document today we heard of a woman who had used up all her sick leave during a very difficult pregnancy to be told that she had one day left and was facing dismissal.

We are nearly into the next millennium, but this report has highlighted that discrimination in the workplace on the basis of pregnancy is well and truly out there and there are many concerns that women have brought to bear through these submissions. It is interesting to note, as Susan Halliday mentioned today, that the number of cases brought before commissions in the federal and state and territory jurisdictions has increased. That is a good thing. These kinds of documents are around for the public record. It is important that we now advertise the fact that there has been an inquiry into this and a report. It empowers both employers and employees to know the issues involved and get on top of them. The report is entitled, `It's a right and not a privilege to work while pregnant'. That is quite a good and catchy title.

At the launch today, Jocelyn Newman actually commented on the fact that one of her colleagues, Jackie Kelly, is pregnant, which we know. My Labor colleagues Senator Jacinta Collins and Anna Burke, from the House of Representatives, are pregnant. There is one thing in relation to those three women in federal parliament worth pointing out—and I do not know whether this document picks it up—and that is that if you are a member of parliament or a senator and you feel that you have been discriminated against because you are pregnant, you are unable to take action under this act. In my discussions with Susan Halliday during this inquiry I raised this with her. I look forward to seeing whether this report has picked this up. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.