In May 2021, the Commonwealth announced it would be providing $5.514 million in funding to Western Australia (WA) over a four-year period (2021-22 to 2024-25) for the provision of legal assistance services for people experiencing workplace sexual harassment or discrimination.

Workplace sexual harassment (WSH) is defined by Section 28A of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) as when a person makes an unwelcome sexual advance, an unwelcome request for sexual favours, or engages in other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature in relation to a person.

Key issues identified following the review of the literature included the subjective and contextual nature of WSH explanations and the complex and confusing legal and regulatory schemes regulating WSH in Australia that survivors and employers are required to understand and navigate. Changes are required to provide greater clarity as the WA legislation inconsistently and inadequately defines and deals with WSH as an issue. If employers and regulators are to meet their responsibilities, clear and consistent definitions of concepts is essential. Failure to define sexual harassment in the regulations represents a missed opportunity to remove ambiguity and confusion about the specific workplace safety risks it poses.

Key recommendations:

• Ensure legal assistance services are knowledgeable about the barriers to seeking help following an incident of WSH – including how these differ across regional/rural and metropolitan areas of WA.
• Legal assistance services should partner and/or provide warm referrals to other services to ensure a holistic, wrap-around model of care. This includes partnering with services that the client may already have relationships with (or who are operating in the same geographical area) to avoid isolation from prior supports.
• Ensure client is aware of the options and pathways available to them and ensure they are presented with the cost and benefit of each option (precedents, likely length of the investigation, likely outcomes, and cost).