Scope SCREEN INDUSTRY VIEWS

Time’s up and sexual harassment will no longer be tolerated within the Australian screen industries. That’s the clear message being sent by Screen Australia’s new Code of Conduct to Assist the Prevention of Sexual Harassment. The policy strictly enforces long-existing sexual-harassment laws and makes funding directly conditional on compliance – it’s the equivalent of posting giant neon billboards at every corner and threatening massive fines.

According to the Australian Human Rights Commission, one in five women and one in twenty men report sexual harassment in the workplace. As Screen Australia’s chief operating officer Fiona Cameron stated in a February press release, ‘The Sex Discrimination Act was enacted in 1984, but that has not stopped sexual harassment occurring in Australian workplaces, including in the screen industry.’

Spurred on by international and local revelations of abusive behaviour in the entertainment industries, Screen Australia joins organisations like Screen Producers Australia (SPA) and the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA), which have been keen to refine and restate their commitments to prevent sexual harassment and take complaints seriously. At SPA’s Safe Workplace Training workshop earlier this year, Cameron acknowledged that the new code was not revolutionary but rather intended to ‘bring the law into plain view, in plain English, and provide pathways to address and resolve issues’.

Having come into effect in April, Screen Australia’s code of conduct covers all productions approved by the agency. In practice, this means every single person working on a project – from employees to interns and subcontractors – will be given a copy of the document. An abridged version in poster form will be prominently displayed in workplaces. If ignorance of the law was ever an excuse, it certainly won’t be now.

Producers will be required to nominate a trained sexual-harassment prevention contact, similar to a staff member responsible for first aid, workplace safety or emergency evacuation. This person will be tasked with enforcing the code’s requirements and addressing any complaints that may arise over the entire period of production and post-production. A person can also report complaints to their supervisor or directly to the producer, who has ultimate legal responsibility.

At the conclusion of a project, a compliance report and statutory declaration must