Overview

• Payman says an older male colleague, allegedly intoxicated, told her “let’s get some wine into you and see you dance on the table,” comments she found both sexually suggestive and racially insensitive toward her as a Muslim woman.
• She lodged a formal grievance with the independent Parliamentary Workplace Support Service and praised its prompt response and support throughout the process.
• Independent senator Lidia Thorpe, who has her own unresolved PWSS claims, criticized the service as opaque and lacking enforcement powers for complainants.
• The PWSS and the newly established Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission were created after the Brittany Higgins revelations to investigate misconduct, but their authority to sanction Parliamentarians remains in doubt.
• As the first hijab-wearing senator, Payman and fellow younger MPs hope visible accountability will help shift long-standing drinking, bullying and harassment practices in Parliament House.