法律翻译 | 呼声来自议会内部：澳大利亚议会中的性别歧视

译者 | 段依辰 中国人民大学B.A. in Philosophy & LL.B.

审稿 | 田雅琦 青岛大学本科

         李梓源 英国布里斯托大学 LL.M.

编辑 | 李薇 浙江工商大学本科

         李建云 湖南师范大学本科

责编 | 戚琳颖 大连海事大学本科

The Call is Coming from Inside the House: Sex Discrimination in Australia’s Parliament

Written by Chloe Menzies

作者：克洛伊·曼兹

FEBRUARY 3, 2023

原文发表时间：2023年2月3日

Within the past 12 months, Jacinda Ardern has resigned as New Zealand’s prime minister, former Australian PM Julia Gillard’s famous “misogyny speech” celebrated its tenth anniversary, and the high-profile retrial against Australian Liberal Party staffer Bruce Lehrmann for the alleged rape of colleague Brittany Higgins was dropped for posing a “significant and unacceptable risk” to the complainant. Across the South Pacific, there is little doubt that the long and ongoing pattern of gender discrimination and sexism paints a bleak future for women in leadership.

In January, Ardern announced her resignation after more than five years in office, citing burnout.

今年1月，阿德恩在任职五年多后因“职业倦怠”而辞职。

“I know what this job takes. And I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice,” she said at her Labour Party’s annual caucus meeting. Ardern was elected in 2017 as the head of New Zealand’s Labour Party – the country’s third female PM, and one of its youngest leaders. Her leadership was defined by a series of major events: the COVID-19 pandemic; the 2019 terror attacks on two Christchurch mosques; and the Whakaari White Island disasters. Despite her initial launch into popularity – dubbed ‘Jacindamania’ – her time in Parliament was saturated with media conspiracies, sexism, and threats of violence.

她在工党的年度核心会议上说：“我知道这项工作需要什么。而且我知道我不再有足够的能力来胜任这项工作”。阿德恩于2017年当选为新西兰工党党魁，是新西兰第三位女总理，也是最年轻的领导人之一。她的领导地位是由一系列重大事件决定的：新冠疫情；2019年克赖斯特彻奇（Christchurch）两座清真寺的恐怖袭击；以及华卡里怀特岛（Whakaari White Island）灾难。尽管她最初广受欢迎，被称为 “Jacindamania”，但她在议会中的任职期间却遭受诸多媒体的阴谋论、性别歧视和暴力威胁。

Unfortunately, the scrutiny Ardern faced resonates on the other side of the Tasman Sea. Since the contentious leadership of Australia’s first, and only, female PM Julia Gillard came to an end in 2013, it’s clear that the “boys club” still has a strong hold on Parliament House.

不幸的是，阿德恩面临的审视在塔斯曼海的另一边同样存在。自从2013年澳大利亚第一位也是唯一一位女总理朱莉娅·吉拉德（Julia Gillard）饱受争议的领导生涯结束以来，“男性俱乐部”显然仍对议会具有强大的控制力。

Australian director and producer Tosca Looby has said that her inspiration for the recent political documentary Strong Female Lead came from a photo of a schoolgirl holding New Zealand’s Ardern tightly by the forearms. Looby thought of the strength and trust that image translated to women and girls across New Zealand. Looking at the image prompted her to reflect on Australia’s single female prime minister.

澳大利亚导演兼制片人托斯卡·洛比（Tosca Looby）表示，她最近拍摄的政治纪录片《坚强的女性领袖》（Strong Female Lead）的灵感来自一张女学生紧紧握住新西兰总理阿德恩前臂的照片。罗比想到了这一形象给新西兰各地的妇女和女孩带来的力量和信任。看着这张照片，她回想起了澳大利亚的单身女总理。

（图片来源于网络）

“I thought about schoolgirls in Australia whose only connection to their female prime minister might be via caricatures of a dumpy, pointy-nosed redhead with a shrill voice,” Looby said.

洛比说：“我想到了澳大利亚的女学生，她们与女总理的唯一联系可能是通过一个矮胖，尖鼻子和声音尖锐的红头发漫画形象”。

Like Jacinda Ardern, Gillard was a popular candidate at the polls, receiving a satisfaction rate of +19 the week of her appointment. Interestingly, by September 2011 her rating dropped dramatically to -45. It could be argued that her decline in popularity was the result of poor policy decisions or an inability to lead the Labour government. However, polling confirms the Labour Party’s rather consistent ratings in the primary vote. More plausible is the hypothesis that Gillard’s tenure in Parliament was subject to an abhorrent slander campaign, both within and outside of Parliament, that saw public confidence in her decline.

与杰辛达·阿德恩（Jacinda Ardern）一样，吉拉德（Gillard）在民意调查中也是一位受欢迎的候选人，在她上任的那一周就获得了+19的满意度。有趣的是，到2011年9月，她的评分急剧下降至-45。有人认为她支持率的下降是由于政策决策不利或无法领导工党政府。然而，民意调查证实，工党在初选投票中具有相当稳定的支持率。更合理的假设是，吉拉德在议会任职期间受到议会内外令人憎恶的诽谤运动的影响，导致公众对她的信心下降。

Globally, women entering Parliament face increased aggression and harassment, primarily due to perceptions of politics as a male-dominated domain, and the repercussions often dissuade women from entering politics. In a survey conducted after Gillard’s term as PM, 60% of women aged 18-21 and 80% of women over the age of 31 stated that they were less likely to run for political roles after seeing the negative treatment Gillard faced by the media.

在全球范围内，进入议会的女性面临越来越多的攻击和骚扰，主要是因为人们认为政治是男性主导的领域，而这种刻板印象往往会阻碍女性从政。在吉拉德担任总理后进行的一项调查中，60%的18-21岁女性和80%的31岁以上女性表示，在看到媒体对吉拉德的负面报道后，她们不太可能参加政治竞选。

In 1997 Australia was ranked 27th globally by the Inter-Parliamentary Union for women in national parliaments. By 2022, that ranking had dropped to 57th. This stark imbalance serves to support the notion that Australia’s political and legal culture doesn’t endorse, and perhaps alienates, women in leadership roles.

1997年，澳大利亚在议会中妇女人数方面被各国议会联盟排名为全球第27位。到2022年，这一排名下降到第57位。这种明显的不平衡佐证了这一观点，即澳大利亚的政治和法律文化并不认可，甚至可能会不利于女性担任领导角色。

Australian columnist Anne Summers’ speech “Her Rights At Work” details the extent of abuse and vitriol Gillard faced during her three years of tenure, and posits that in any other workplace, Gillard would be protected as a worker by anti-discrimination laws.

澳大利亚专栏作家安妮·萨默斯（Anne Summers）的演讲“她在工作中的权利（Her Rights At Work）”详细介绍了吉拉德在三年任期内面临的虐待和谩骂的程度，并假定在任何其他工作场所，吉拉德作为一名工作者都会受到反歧视法的保护。

Section 5(1) of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) defines sex discrimination, as where “the discriminator treats the aggrieved person less favourably than, in circumstances that are the same or are not materially different, the discriminator would treat a person of a different sex”.

1984年《性别歧视法》（澳大利亚联邦）第5（1）条将性别歧视定义为：“在相同或没有实质性差异的情况下，歧视者对受害者的待遇不如歧视者对不同性别的人的待遇”。

When compared to the national framework, Gillard’s treatment by other parliamentarians in the capacity of her role is nothing short of discriminatory behaviour. In Parliament House, it isn’t uncommon for Question Time, a daily public-access panel held in the House of Representatives, to get argumentative. Over the duration of Gillard’s tenure, she engaged in countless policy debates with Opposition ministers. However, Gillard was often rebutting sexist insults and gendered stereotypes as opposed to legislative matters, many of which were tactically used to undermine her substantive discussions. Summers’ essay outlines countless instances of bullying, sexism and discrimination that Gillard faced, which fall short of national antidiscrimination laws due to a constitutional parliamentary privilege awarded to members of the Cabinet. However, as Summers suggests, in any non-parliamentary role, Gillard would have more than reasonable grounds for relief under anti-discrimination laws.

与国家框架相比，吉拉德因其角色身份受到其他议员的对待无异于歧视行为。在议会大厦，众议院公众访问小组每天举行的质询时间（Question Time）出现争论的情况并不少见。在吉拉德任职期间，她与反对党部长进行了无数次政策辩论。然而，吉拉德经常被迫反驳性别歧视的侮辱和性别刻板印象，而非立法问题，其中许多都是（在野党）巧妙地用来破坏她的实质性讨论。萨默斯的文章概述了吉拉德面临的无数欺凌和性别歧视的事例，由于宪法赋予内阁成员的议会特权，这些事例不符合国家反歧视法。然而，正如萨默斯所建议的那样，在任何非议会角色中，吉拉德都有更合理的理由根据反歧视法获得救济。

This discourse is not limited to those holding the top seat; a 2021 report which surveyed more than 1,000 current and former employees in the Australian parliament found that one in three employees have experienced sexual harassment. In 2020 the Four Corners TV episode “Inside the Canberra Bubble” unravelled a long history of sexism, harassment and disrespect towards women in Parliament. Featuring several prominent female parliamentarians, the episode exposed sexual misconduct, workplace affairs, assault, and misogynistic behaviours.

这种讨论不仅限于那些位高权重的人；在2021年对澳大利亚议会的1000多名现任和前任员工进行调查后发现，三分之一的员工经历过性骚扰。2020年，四角电视台（Four Corners）的电视节目“堪培拉泡沫的内部（Inside the Canberra Bubble）”揭示了议会中长期存在的性别歧视、骚扰和不尊重女性的现象。该节目以几位著名的女议员为主角，揭露了性行为不端、工作场所中的暧昧关系、攻击和厌恶女性的行为。

Realistically, an imbalance of power in Parliament House is difficult to deny when a “bonk ban” has to be enforced on parliamentarians to stop them from having sexual relations with their staff.

实际上，当必须对议员实施“性交禁令”以阻止他们与工作人员发生性关系时，议会大厦中的权力失衡很难被否认。

Australia’s political media echoes the favoured attitudes in Parliament, and media commentators revelled in discussing Gillard’s appearance, her body, and her gender. One comparative study found that 58% of news articles discussed her femininity, whilst 47% mentioned or focused on aspects of her body or gender identity. Journalists focused on her marital status, her childlessness, her partner, and his sexuality. Before her appointment, Liberal minister Bill Heffernan told an Australian magazine that Gillard was unfit for leadership because she was “deliberately barren”. 

澳大利亚的政治媒体也附和议会的态度，媒体评论员热衷于讨论吉拉德的外貌、身体和性别。一项比较研究发现，58%的新闻文章讨论了她的女性气质，而47%的新闻文章提到或关注她的身体或性别认同的各个方面。记者关注她的婚姻状况、无子女的状况、她的伴侣和其伴侣的性取向。在她被任命之前，自由党部长比尔·赫弗南（Bill Heffernan）告诉一家澳大利亚杂志，吉拉德不适合担任领导职位，因为她“故意不育”。 

Former cartoonist for The Australian, Larry Pickering, launched a media tirade against Gillard, sending daily emails to every member of the Federal Parliament containing vile, sexist commentary of Gillard, accompanied by demeaning cartoon illustrations of her. In 2011, the sitcom television series “At Home with Julia”, aired on ABC. The show was a fictionalised depiction of Gillard’s life in the prime minister’s residence and is littered with sexist tropes. Featuring other high-profile ministers, the show reflects the epidemic of “personality politics” that conflates politicians with celebrity in a way that further damaged Gillard’s public standing.

（图片来源于网络）

In office, Gillard often faced public threats of violence, including death and rape threats. Coverage of the 2011 anti-carbon tax riots showcased signs stating “ditch the witch”, and Sydney news commentator Alan Jones’ infamous broadcast referred to her as a “lying bitch”, and suggested throwing her “out to sea in a chaff bag”. Upon the death of Gillard’s father, Alan Jones alleged that her father had “died of shame” ­– an insult that was later used by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. Even Gillard’s now famous misogyny speech was ridiculed by media commentators who failed to scrutinise Abbott’s incendiary remarks before her outburst.

在任期期间，吉拉德经常面临公开的暴力威胁，包括死亡和强奸威胁。对2011年反碳税骚乱的报道展示了“抛弃女巫”的标语，悉尼新闻评论员艾伦·琼斯（Alan Jones）在其臭名昭著的广播中称她为“撒谎的婊子”，并建议将她“装在谷壳袋中扔进海里”。吉拉德的父亲去世后，艾伦·琼斯声称她的父亲“死于耻辱”，而这种侮辱手段后来被反对党领袖托尼·阿博特（Tony Abbott）使用。就连吉拉德现在发表的有关厌女症的著名演讲也遭到了媒体评论员的嘲笑，他们在吉拉德情绪失控之前没有仔细审查阿博特的煽动性言论。

This nature of political media coverage hasn’t died with age; many female ministers continue to face distasteful media portrayals. New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian’s choice of jacket became a guessing game during daily COVID-19 press briefings, and radio presenter Jeremy Cordeaux referred to rape victim Brittany Higgins as “a silly little girl who got drunk”. Ardern herself didn’t make it one day into the role before being asked by a news host whether she had to “make a choice between having babies and having a career”.

政治媒体报道的这种性质并没有随着时间的推移而消失。许多女部长继续面临令人反感的媒体描述。在每天的新冠肺炎新闻发布会上，新南威尔士州州长格拉迪斯·贝雷吉克利安（Gladys Berejiklian）所穿的外套成为了一场猜谜游戏，电台主持人杰里米·科尔多（Jeremy Cordeeaux）将强奸受害者布列塔尼·希金斯（Brittany Higgins）称为“一个醉酒的愚蠢小女孩”。阿德恩本人上任不足一天，就被一位新闻主持人问及是否必须在“生孩子和事业之间做出选择”。

With an abundance of documented evidence that arguably satisfies the threshold for equitable discrimination on the basis of sex, this cultural epidemic within the Australian Parliament appears largely unaddressed.

尽管有大量的书面证据，这些证据可以说已经达到了基于性别的公平歧视的门槛，但澳大利亚议会内部的这种文化流行病似乎在很大程度上没有得到解决。

Extensive cultural and political dialogues have ensued since Gillard’s term in office, and workplace gender equality has gradually shifted to the forefront of public consciousness. In 2018, Liberal minister Julia Banks left parliament, blaming the “scourge of cultural and gender bias, bullying and intimidation”, and was joined by several other female Liberal members. With the production of exposé documentaries and public testimonies from MPs, the cultural standard enabled in Parliament has become increasingly clear.

自吉拉德上任以来，广泛的文化和政治对话接踵而至，职场性别平等逐渐成为公众意识的前沿。2018年，自由党部长朱莉娅·班克斯（Julia Banks）离开议会，指责“文化和性别偏见、欺凌和恐吓的灾祸”，其他几名自由党女性议员也加入了这一行列。随着具有揭露意义纪录片的制作和国会议员的公开证词，议会中的文化标准变得越来越清晰。

In the “Set the Standard” report released in 2021, Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins described Parliament House as something that “Australians look to with pride”. The report identified several drivers for misconduct in Parliament and set out a multidisciplinary strategy to combat inequality in parliamentary workplaces, including substantial reforms to promote accountability, ethical conduct, and transparency. The report made 28 recommendations for change, including a statement of acknowledgement from parliamentary leaders, strategies to increase gender balance and professionalism in management practices.

在2021年发布的《设定标准》（“Set the Standard”）报告中，性别歧视专员凯特·詹金斯（Kate Jenkins）将议会大厦描述为“澳大利亚人引以为傲”的地方。该报告确定了议会中不当行为的几个驱动因素，并制定了一项多学科战略，以打击议会工作场所的不平等现象，包括进行实质性改革，以促进问责制、道德行为和透明度。该报告提出了28项改革建议，包括议会领导人的承诺声明、加强性别平衡的战略和管理实践中的专业精神。

（图片来源于网络）

With this, a model of conduct is proposed to specifically address sexual misconduct, discriminatory behaviour, and exclusion. However, these recommendations are just that; without affirmative action by the Parliament, the recommendations cannot be enforced. Until a female leader can be elected to Parliament without accepting the prerequisite of sexist hostility, media scrutiny, and threats of misogyny-driven violence, resignations will continue, girls and women will continue to be deterred from political roles, and the culture behind Parliament House will remain intact.

据此，一种专门解决性行为不端、歧视行为和排斥问题的行为模式被提出。但是，这些建议也仅仅是建议而已；如果议会不采取积极的行动，这些建议就无法执行。如果女性领导人只有在接受性别歧视敌意、媒体审查和厌女症驱动的暴力威胁的前提下才能够被选入议会，除非女性领导人能够在不接受性别歧视敌意、媒体审查和厌女症驱动的暴力威胁的先决条件下被选入议会，那么辞职将继续，女孩和妇女将继续被阻止担任政治角色，议会大厦的文化宿弊将积重难返。

原文链接：

https://www.jurist.org/commentary/2023/02/the-call-is-coming-from-inside-the-house-sex-discrimination-in-australias-parliament/