Parliament is launching an independent external review into bullying and harassment of staff, Speaker of the House Trevor Mallard announced on Tuesday morning.
The review will establish whether bullying or harassment has occurred, then investigate the extent of the behaviour. The review will include current and former members of staff.
"Bullying and harassment are unacceptable in any workplace, including at parliament. All of the agencies involved want their staff to feel safe and supported. We want to proactively find out what we can do to improve the parliamentary workplace," Mr Mallard said.
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Independent external reviewer Debbie Francis will be carrying out the investigation.
Ms Francis has previously worked on similar projects with organisations such as the New Zealand Defence Force.
According to Ms Francis "all data is securely held and will be destroyed at the review's conclusion. All information will be kept confidential and no one will be identified".
Staff at Parliament will be able to participate either via a secure online survey, 1-on-1 interviews with Ms Francis, focus groups or in writing via email or letter to a PO box.
The majority of the focus groups and interviews are expected to take place between December 2018 and February 2019.
Once all of the results of the review have been received, they will be published and analysed for any trends or patterns. Recommendations will be made on how these could be addressed in the future.
Newshub.
