Graduate program allegedly had 'hotties list'

The Canberra Times

Infrastructure secretary Jim Betts is quizzed on allegations male graduates created a "degrading list of women which assessed them by their so-called hotness".

Transcript

00:00 Does the phrase "Hoddy's list" mean anything to you, Mr Betts?

00:04 You're going down this path, aren't you, Senator, which I warned you about?

00:10 Yes, it does. So this relates to allegations which were made within our graduate program

00:17 about concerns that some female grads had that certain male members of the graduate cohort

00:25 had assembled a list of, a degrading list of women which assessed them by their so-called "hotness"

00:33 which is just a disgusting phrase that I hate to have to mention.

00:37 So confronted with the concerns that had been expressed by our female graduates,

00:45 I assembled that graduate cohort and, as I've said, reminded everybody of the need for respect in the workplace.

00:52 We have subsequently undertaken more formal investigations into that.

00:58 We can go through the process of that, but I - Ms Bridger has got the detail there.

01:05 Obviously there are certain procedural fairness considerations and evidentiary tests that need to be satisfied.

01:13 We were unable to substantiate the existence of such a list, which doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

01:19 It just means that we were unable to substantiate it, notwithstanding the fact that we got independent external investigators

01:26 to assist us in our inquiries.

01:28 We embarked on a process thereafter, including my having conversations with all of the female graduates

01:34 without any males in the room to make sure that they were getting all the support that the department could provide,

01:40 including from me and from my office, as well as our HR function.

01:44 And I know that we have taken advice from the former Sex Discrimination Commissioner

01:50 to ensure that the steps that we've taken are the appropriate ones within the bounds of procedural fairness

01:56 and what the law permits us to do.

01:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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