The Victorian Labor Party are currently seeking new avenues to improve the behaviour of politicians. One of the potential plans includes a ban that will prohibit politicians from having relationships with staff members.
According to The Age, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews held a meeting with female government MPs on Friday to discuss parliamentary behaviour.
The publication reported that multiple members who were present during the discussion claimed that Andrews suggested minimising the sale of alcohol at Parliament House, as well as revealing potential plans to ask MPs not to engage in sexual activity with staffers.
Although the plan has no specific name or title, the discussion was reportedly compared to the “bonk ban,” which prohibited sexual relationships between ministers and staff in federal parliament.
To give you the TL;DR on that bonk ban: It was introduced in 2018 by Malcolm Turnbull in response to Barnaby Joyce‘s relo with staffer Vikki Campion.
The difference between the 2018 bonk horny ban and the plan that the Victorian Labor Party are gunning for is that the ban would include all government MPs.
One minister who spoke to The Age claimed that no proposal had been made to cabinet, but senior MPs were encouraged to discuss appropriate parliamentary behaviour with their colleagues.
During Friday’s meeting, the Vic Premier made it clear that people shouldn’t use alcohol as an excuse for their behaviour and that people should take responsibility for their actions.
“The notion [that] it is just the bar, I think there are some broader issues at play in workplaces all across the state, and we need to do more, and we need to do better,” Andrews said, per The Age.
“Parliament is a workplace, it needs to be safe [and] it needs to be respectful.
“This is not a footy trip. It’s not a place where you can behave differently to any other workplace.”
It’ll be extremely interesting to see what the Vic government comes up with to wrangle and shape up the behaviours of its MPs and what this potential “bonk ban” would look like.
Image source: Getty Images / Daniel Pockett
