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