Rebekha Sharkie and crossbench MPs demand action to make Parliament safe after alleged rape of Brittany Higgins

SA’s Rebekha Sharkie is among a cohort of MPs calling for an independent body to assess allegations of sexual harassment and assault in Federal Parliament.

South Australia’s Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie and five other crossbench federal MPs are pushing for major changes in response to the alleged rape of staffer Brittany Higgins.

Action was needed urgently and it was crucial Parliament responds rather than allowing the issue to drift away as the news cycle moves on, Ms Sharkie said.

The MPs are calling for four measures:

AN independent, external body be established to hear allegations of sexual harassment and assault.

AN independent review be conducted into how complaints are handled.

THE Acts under which staff are employed should be reviewed.

CHANGES should be made to the Acts in light of what the review finds.

“The independent, external body will need to not only handle complaints and allegations from staff, members of Parliament and senators,” Ms Sharkie said.

“It needs to cover volunteers and people who work in the Press Gallery.

“Journalists are sometimes under pressure to build relationships that they feel uncomfortable about with people who are senior or prominent.

“There is a very obvious power imbalance.”

Centre Alliance member for Mayo Rebekha Sharkie is among all crossbenchers demanding action – including Greens Adam Bandt and Bob Katter.

Ms Sharkie said Ms Higgins’ horrific allegations of being raped in the office of her boss, Defence Minister Linda Reynolds, by a male staffer after a night out in 2019 was not the first case to shock Parliament.

She said other professions, such as the legal sector, had similar power-imbalance problems leading to sexual exploitation.

“As lawmakers for the country we should be leading the way in best practice,” she said.

“Clearly we’re not. We’ve seen many cases where it’s just seen as a political situation to be managed.

“The legal profession seems to have recognised they have a problem – we haven’t even recognised that.”

All six House of Representatives crossbenchers – Ms Sharkie, Zali Steggall, Helen Haines, Bob Katter, Adam Bandt and Andrew Wilkie and Adam Bandt – have signed a letter to the Speaker, Senate President, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese.

Ms Sharkie said Ms Higgins’ case was “certainly a police matter” but she had been poorly supported when she raised the incident.

“There were huge failings in her case – and for many, many staffers before her,” she said.

Mr Morrison said in the past few years there had been improvements in how such matters were dealt with in the parliamentary workplace but he was not so naive as to think “a position of vulnerability” could not still occur.

He has appointed Celia Hammond, Liberal MP for Curtin in WA and a former vice-chancellor of Notre Dame University, to initiate a process “to identify ways that standards and expectations and practices can be further improved”.

Mr Morrison told Parliament on Wednesday he welcomed the crossbench letter and input from others.

His inquiry by Ms Hammond “should indeed address” the matters raised.

“I would stress I don’t think we should presume what the conclusions of that review should be and what it would recommend and what is the best way because this ultimately is what this is about, what is the best way we can ensure that people who work in this place can get the supports that they need in the most extreme of circumstances as been the subject of the matters we’ve been addressing here over the course of this week or, frankly, in the more routine of matters in relation to their own employment,” he said.

“So I think it is a useful process to do that, these terrible events we’ve been talking about this week, as we know, these are events that can occur, they’re not peculiar to any one employer in this place or any one party in this place.

“It is about changing the environment and I would think all members are committed to that.”

Meanwhile, pressure is mounting on Ms Reynolds for not informing Mr Morrison of the case. Mr Morrison said he understood Ms Reynolds was protecting Ms Higgins’ privacy but argued he could have been told without Ms Higgins’ identity being revealed.

Mr Albanese said if Ms Reynolds worked under him she would be out of cabinet.

Ms Higgins moved from Defence to the office of Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business Minister Michaelia Cash in 2019.

Senator Cash told parliament on Wednesday she knew about the rape allegations from February 5 but also had not told Mr Morrison.

Senator Cash said she offered to accompany Ms Higgins to police or to Mr Morrison, but Ms Higgins had declined.

“She wanted, at all times, her privacy respected,” Senator Cash said.

Senator Cash had offered to transfer Ms Higgins to Queensland, but the offer was declined and Ms Higgins’ resignation was accepted.

On Wednesday afternoon, Ms Higgins issued a statement saying she had only become aware of “key elements” of her sexual assault after she came forward publicly with her story.

These included the role of security guards, that an internal review had been conducted and that “they debated calling an ambulance at the time of the incident”.

“The continued victim-blaming rhetoric by the Prime Minister is personally very distressing to me and countless other survivors,” Ms Higgins said.

It also emerged on Wednesday that the Speaker and the Senate President had been made aware in March and April of 2019 that the Australian Federal Police asked to view CCTV footage related to the incident.

Police viewed the footage on April 16, 2019. Two days later, police asked for release of some of the footage so they could provide it to the ACT Policing Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Team.

The Speaker and Senate President were told there was no active investigation so determined to store the footage “on an ongoing basis with the agreement of the AFP for their access as required”, a statement from the Parliamentary Services Department said.