Kate Jenkins' 'Set the Standard' report findings are not surprising to women

The fact that one in three people who currently work in Commonwealth parliamentary offices have personally been sexually harassed is no surprise to women. At all.

We've known this anecdotally, intuitively and sadly, here in Canberra, many know it personally.

Nevertheless, it says a great deal about women's low expectations of this government, that various women in positions of leadership met the report's release on Tuesday with mumbles through gritted teeth. Not, because the report is a disappointment.

Quite the opposite.

But like previous reports produced by the Sex Discrimination Commissioner it asks women to be ... hopeful. Again.

Hopeful that this well-designed, intelligent and timely blueprint mapped out by Kate Jenkins actually gets activated.

Jenkins last report, Respect@Work, sat gathering dust for over a year. Post the tsunami of women's anger that followed Brittney Higgins' rape allegations, that report was tepidly ticked off.

Most of the 55 recommendations were simply "noted" with only a handful accepted in full. Will this be any different?

Waving the new report in front of the cameras on Tuesday, the Prime Minister insisted: "These are not new issues."

A line delivered with exceptional earnestness, whilst ignoring its tired repetition, in the face of so much inaction. "We all share in these problems," he said.

"And we all share in their solutions."

Which is in fact nonsense. Some share in these disgraceful truths about our Parliament's sexist and debauched culture much more than others.

We need every single one of Jenkins 28 recommendations to be elevated to top priority.

Starting with the much needed statement of acknowledgement by political leaders to commit to cultural change.

We need to hear them say it. Pledge it. Prove it.

Jenkins' intelligent pathway of action presents a fighting chance to start shifting our shameful culture of sexism, harassment and bullying in Parliament - but only if all her 28 recommendations are adopted.

They are all intrinsically linked. There are no ambit claims.

Her recommendation for restrictions on alcohol in Parliament is an obvious and urgent issue. Why? Well, here's the tenor of parliamentary behaviour by an unnamed MP towards a young staffer: "He grabbed me and stuck his tongue down my throat. The others all laughed. It was revolting and humiliating."

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Jenkins call for targets to increase the representation of women in senior and leadership roles is inextricably linked to cultural change. But that too will fall flat on a government with a pathological fear of quotas.

Women are tired, exhausted from a punishing year and now too discouraged to expect anything revolutionary from yet another report. But revolution is what's required.

At heart of the grubby, abusive culture Jenkins has laid bare is power - men's use of it and women's lack of it. The role of power and how it is abused reverberates throughout Set the Standard.

Perhaps the last word then from the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, who has long urged women to take power.

"Gender equality is a question of power," he says. "Power that has been jealously guarded by men for millennia."

Time to seriously ask, for how much longer?