The former minister for women in the previous Coalition government says the idea that parliamentarians could choose to finish at 5pm was a "rose-coloured glasses view" and bristled at "aspersions" about use of alcohol in Parliament House.
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Liberal senator Marise Payne, responding to a law professor urging limits on working hours and alcohol in the Parliament to reduce risks of violence against women, said the arguments disparaged MPs and "don't reflect my experience in Parliament House".
The senior Liberal parliamentarian who served as both defence and foreign affairs minister in previous parliaments said she had very few friends in corporate life who were able to finish work at 5, 6 or 7 o'clock.
"Even if you shut the Parliament at 5 o'clock ... with responsibility comes often much more onerous demands on individuals and their contribution to the workplace," she said.
"But even if you did that, the rose-colored view that says ... people will leave the Parliament and go back to their place of abode ... and that's the end of their interaction - I'm just not sure that's a practical appreciation of what happens and would happen."
She said the overwhelming majority of MPs were "very focused on their jobs, on the task at hand," but some sections of the news media and community of taking "great delight" in casting aspersions on the Parliament and its residents.
Her comments were made during a hearing on implementing parliamentary standards through a code of conduct sparked by an allegation of rape in the Parliament involving alcohol and two Liberal ministerial staffers and subsequent inquiries including by Sex Discrimination Commission Kate Jenkins.
The law professor, Rosalind Dixon, who is the director of the Pathways to Politics program for women, said risks of gender-based violence were exacerbated in isolated work environments, where people are working without others around, and where there is a culture of tolerating excessive consumption of alcohol.
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The inquiry also heard from the Parliamentary Leadership Taskforce, led by former senior public servant Kerri Hartland and has oversight of implementing Ms Jenkins' recommendations. The taskforce is conducting a risk assessment of the use of alcohol where parliamentary and political staffers work. Depending on who they work for, parliamentary staff may or may not have alcohol policies in place.
The inquiry is charged with investigating and making recommendations for a new code of conduct for parliamentary staff and MPs that would work alongside the existing codes for ministers and public servants.
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