‘Blokey’ culture revealed in Productivity Commission’s Canberra office

article-body

A small cohort of men in the Productivity Commission’s Canberra office perpetrated a culture of sexism, sexual harassment and bullying, according to a review of the commission’s culture.

An abridged version of the review, conducted by Intersection on behalf of Treasury, has been published for public release.

It found a distinction between the commission’s Canberra and Melbourne offices, with the ACT office described as having a “blokey, hyper-masculine culture” by an unnamed review participant.

The review found women travelling from the Melbourne office to Canberra were warned to watch out for “predatory behaviour” by certain people.

Women told the review they left the commission after feeling their intelligence was being constantly undermined, with women from a culturally diverse background also saying they felt “unseen and unheard”.

It noted a lack of reasonable accommodations made for people with disabilities in both offices.

While noting the difference between Melbourne and Canberra cultures, the review also stated Melbourne had 67 staff separations between 2019 and 2002 while Canberra had 28 for the same period. There was also an even split of 12 recorded incidents in the Central Workplace Behaviour Register from July 2021.

The review said the majority, “if not all”, of the “relatively small” number of individuals who perpetrated the negative culture had left the commission.

“That the culture of inappropriate behaviour was allowed to pervade this workplace for such a long period is an indictment and a result of incidents and bad actors not being effectively managed by leadership,” the review stated.

“It has been consistently reported to this review that the lack of leadership was not intentional but rather a result of leaders not being sufficiently skilled to appropriately manage and lead people and resolve conflict.

“Regardless of whether intentional or not, it represents a significant failing of management.”

The review also found the commission had a tendency to respond “in extremes” by either not investigating complaints or launching full-scale investigations.

“There are and should be middle ground options that allow staff to informally report incidents and for these to be resolved by managers at the lowest level possible, providing accountability in real time so that matters do not remain unresolved and poor behaviours unchecked and ultimately escalating to formal and investigated complaints,” the review stated.

A total of 23 recommendations for the commission were made, including training leaders on trauma-informed and victim-centred approaches to responding to inappropriate behaviour, prioritising recruiting leaders with people and leadership management skills as well as technical knowledge and skill and updating the workplace behaviour policy including a distinct section on sexual harassment.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said Productivity Commission incoming chair Danielle Wood had agreed to all of the recommendations.

“The Productivity Commission will undergo significant workplace reform after an independent review found the need to improve its internal culture,” Chalmers said in a statement.

“The report notes,” Chalmers continued, “that in recent years the commission has improved its policies and reporting procedures in line with the Respect@Work recommendations – but more needs to be done.”