Jo Tarnawsky first visited Parliament House as a 12-year-old. She describes it as a “life-changing moment.”
After winning a national kids competition on the environment, she was given the opportunity to meet then Prime Minister Bob Hawke and “instantly knew” she wanted to work in Parliament House one day.
Having known the now Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles for over 10 years, and worked alongside him previously, Jo was chosen to be his right-hand woman in 2022.
“The Deputy Prime Minister praised the work I did,” Jo points out.
But behind the scenes, Jo claims that over time, she became a target.
During a flight from Ukraine to Australia in April 2024, Jo privately informed the Deputy Prime Minister about the bullying she was experiencing.
What happened next shocked her. She was ostracised, sidelined from her role, and told she could not even go to her own office.
After five months, with mounting trauma, Jo decided to reveal publicly what was happening behind closed doors.
Jo is not the first parliamentary staffer to expose allegations of bullying, nor is she a shrinking violet. She claims she has “a very high degree of resilience”, noting, “I have worked in war zones and have endured intense cancer treatment. Resilience is not the problem.”
She insists, “The answer lies in holding poor behaviour to account whenever and wherever it occurs… It requires calling people out, including on your side of politics or with powerful individuals.”
In November 2024, more than 200 days after she raised her concerns with the Deputy Prime Minister, she wrote a letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese asking him to intervene and hold the Deputy Prime Minister to account. He never responded.
“In its first term, the Albanese government placed mandatory obligations on employers by legislating for the psychosocial safety of workplaces across Australia”, Jo points out. “Why should it be exempted from its own laws? The government needs to walk the talk and provide for the psychosocial safety of its own workplace.”
She emphasises the importance of victims staying strong in the face of bullying and calling it out without fear.
“Silence protects the perpetrators”, Jo cautions. “And in a political context, it protects political power. It does not protect you. And it does not protect the people who follow you”.
Following the defection of Greens Senator Dorinda Cox to the Labor government, Jo said she “felt for the multiple staff – women – who had bravely come forward to report their experiences”.
“For the Prime Minister to casually dismiss their complaints for political expedience tells you everything you need to know about how genuine he and his government are about parliamentary workplace reform.”
Cox was thrust into the spotlight as multiple people, including now independent Senator Lidia Thorpe, revealed bullying allegations had been made against her.
Jo claims that since her case went public, she has been contacted by victims of all political persuasions, as well as individuals employed in roles outside political offices.
In February 2022, shortly before he became Prime Minister, Albanese acknowledged in parliament “the women who bravely stood up and called out a culture of mistreatment, which brought this issue into the light.”
“Staff and their contributions are not in the spotlight, but lower visibility is not a licence to lesser treatment. No one deserves to feel unsafe or disrespected in any workplace, let alone our national parliament.”
“Now that he is in government, this commitment doesn’t seem to be such a strong priority,” Jo laments.
While she doesn’t want to dissuade people – particularly women – from working in parliament, she says “people need to go into politics with their eyes open, given the well-documented reports of behaviour at Parliament House. It’s like cancer – you never think it’s going to happen to you…until it does”.
Jo ultimately sued the Deputy Prime Minister, and her case was settled out of court shortly before the election.
She says her experiences of working at Parliament House have been a defining moment. She has left the public service and is currently taking some time out to recover and rebuild, and now looks towards the future.
“I will survive.”
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