All Women’s Action Society (AWAM) programme and operations manager Nisha Sabanayagam said the bill should have been tabled sooner than later as the draft had been prepared earlier in the year.

“A change of government may have caused a bump in the road but since the bill was already prepared and was merely at the point of being tabled, this was a bump that the government could have handled.

“Any questions on the bill and its draft could be referred to the stakeholder organisations that were involved and we would have been happy to support the government in this way,” she said in a statement.

Nisha called for a set date for the bill to be tabled in the future.

“By not focusing on the bill in the past year, the government has also lost the chance to ensure that a proper allocation of resources is set aside during the 2021 budget, to ensure an effective implementation of the bill,” she said.

Women, Family and Community Development Minister Rina Harun had previously informed the Dewan Rakyat that the tabling of the Sexual Harassment Bill was delayed partly due to the change in government with the new Perikatan Nasional administration taking over from Pakatan Harapan in March.

She was responding to Batu Kawan MP Kasthuri Patto, who questioned why the bill had taken such a long time to be finalised.