Committee activities (inquiries and reports)

Inquiry into workplace bullying

Terms of Reference

Workplace bullying can have a profound effect on all aspects of a person’s health as well as their work and family life. It also has significant flow‐on effects for the community and the economy, with the Productivity Commission estimating the total cost of workplace bullying in Australia at between $6 billion and $36 billion annually.

The terms of reference for the inquiry will focus on:

• the prevalence of workplace bullying in Australia and the experience of victims of workplace bullying;
• the role of workplace cultures in preventing and responding to bullying and the capacity for workplace‐based policies and procedures to influence the incidence and seriousness of workplace bullying;
• the adequacy of existing education and support services to prevent and respond to workplace bullying and whether there are further opportunities to raise awareness of workplace bullying such as community forums;
• whether the scope to improve coordination between governments, regulators, health service providers and other stakeholders to address and prevent workplace bullying;
• whether there are regulatory, administrative or cross‐jurisdictional and international legal and policy gaps that should be addressed in the interests of enhancing protection against and providing an early response to workplace bullying, including through appropriate complaint mechanisms;
• whether the existing regulatory frameworks provide a sufficient deterrent against workplace bullying;
• the most appropriate ways of ensuring bullying culture or behaviours are not transferred from one workplace to another; and
• possible improvements to the national evidence base on workplace bullying.

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