29 June 2017

Recent complaints regarding incidents of sexual harassment and assault within other Australian Greens parties have highlighted that there is no room for complacency on these issues, especially in an organisation that has non violence and elimination of discrimination as core principles.

Whilst these issues are not gender-specific they disproportionately affect women, and indirectly affect the entire organisation by limiting the ability of all members to feel safe and participate.

As part of our obligation of a duty of care to members and volunteers, the Queensland Greens have been working on our internal procedures on these matters for some years. There is still more work to do, and even in an organisation as progressive as the Greens it is still necessary to work on our internal culture to ensure we are living up to our ideals.Therefore we are currently reviewing our procedures for dealing with sexual harassment and assault to see how they can be further improved.

A significant part of the move towards working on our internal culture has been the creation of the Queensland Greens Women’s Network (QGWN) to provide a safe space for women in the party to organise and participate. The QGWN has been tasked by Management Committee with leading the review, and all Greens members are invited to contribute.

We are currently looking into more ways to support all members. As a party we are committed to ensuring our members are and feel safe and we are doing what is necessary to protect them, and handle honestly, efficiently and effectively anyone who violates our principles in this most egregious of ways.

Any person who wishes to report a specific incident of sexual harassment is encouraged to contact the Queensland Greens’ State Director, Kitty Carra, via director@qld.greens.org.au.

Queensland Greens Management Committee & Queensland Greens Women’s Network