Kate Jenkins's report, commissioned in 2018 by then minister for women Kelly O'Dwyer, was handed to the government last January and released to the public on March 5, 2020.

Since then little, despite the breadth and scope of the inquiry which revealed that more than a third of working women and more than a quarter of working men had experienced sexual harassment in the workplace "in recent times", little was done.

The most significant timely response the Prime Minister could point to on Thursday was the adoption of nine of the 20 recommendations that had been directed solely at the Australian government as part of the Women's Economic Security Statement in last October's budget.

That was five months ago.

When questioned about the delay the Prime Minister continued to defend the pace of his government's response.

"Last year was a very extraordinary year ... There were many issues that we were not enabled to advance ... because of the pressures and demands of Covid," he said.

Mr Morrison also made the point the opposition had not been unduly concerned in 2020 either and that "not on one occasion did that [Respect@Work] come up in question time".

He also rejected any suggestion the events of the past two months may have influenced the decision to accept all 55 of the sex discrimination commissioner's recommendations either "wholly, in part, or in principle", saying "the values that our response is based on are our enduring values as a government".

That will be greeted with some scepticism by those concerned by the initial responses to the Higgins rape allegations, the rape accusation against the former attorney general, and the PM's willingness to allow Andrew Laming to continue to sit as a Liberal MP.

All of that said, now the response to the Respect@Work report is finally in there appears to be much to like.

An excellent, and long overdue, reform is the inclusion of sexual harassment in the definition of "serious misconduct" under the Fair Work Act and the commitment to ensure it can be included as a valid reason for lawful dismissal.

This, as Attorney-General Michaelia Cash went to some lengths to explain, will remove any confusion over the seriousness of the offence or its possible consequences.

While the inclusion of a "stop sexual harassment" order within the existing "stop bullying" order framework falls short of what Ms Jenkins recommended, it is certainly a step in the right direction and would presumably be subject to review.

The effective extension of time for people to be able to lodge sexual harassment complaints from six months to 24 months, and the extension of the Sex Discrimination Act to cover MPs and judges are also common sense and easily implementable measures that could have been made years ago.

It remains to be seen if the government will be able to come up with draft legislation before its self-imposed June deadline and, if it does, if the proposals receive multi-partisan support.

That will, in large part, depend on the community reaction to this complex response to a complicated issue. While the government, at this early stage, appears to have struck the right note, the devil, as always, will be in the detail.

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