Brittany Higgins poses with four other women after PM Scott Morrison’s apology in Parliament
Brittany Higgins posed with four other women after the PM’s apology to alleged sexual assault victims in Parliament House - here’s why this photo is so important.
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It was a powerful moment that almost didn’t happen - Brittany Higgins and four other women who have played a historic role in a national conversation that unleashed a firestorm.
Their names are important too: former Liberal staffers Chelsey Potter, Josie Coles, Rachelle Miller and sexual consent advocate Chanel Contos.
But you didn’t hear the Prime Minister utter their names. Or the names of many other women who have fought for justice who couldn’t be there.
The enormous bravery that these women displayed in telling their stories publicly, a decision that has too often involved personal attacks on social media and in other forums, was on display as they sat in the public gallery staring down the Prime Minister, again.
Higgins sat with her hands folded over her body listening to the apology, physically shaking throughout the speeches until finally she was overcome and left the room in tears.
It was a reminder that the human toll of asking people to tell their stories to drive change is a heavy burden that is often disregarded and forgotten.
In June, her allegations will be tested in a Canberra court. A man has pleaded not guilty.
As Higgins left the chamber, she was comforted by Rachelle Miller, who told her story in November, 2020 to the ABC’s Four Corners program, which in turn inspired Brittany Higgins to tell her own.
She alleges she was bullied by her then lover Education Minister Alan Tudge, who remains on leave pending the findings of an independent investigation.
He denies the allegations but does not dispute he conducted an extra-marital affair with his press secretary that he “deeply regrets.”
Of course, the four Australian women who sat in the chamber are not the only women that have raised these issues and there was immediate criticism that the group was too “white” and too middle class.
That criticism is justified. But it should not be directed at these women, who did not choose to be the only women who made their way into the parliamentary chamber on Tuesday.
In fact, they almost didn’t make it at all. It is unfair to blame them for an invite list that the Prime Minister’s office never composed.
In a tone-deaf decision that suggests the Morrison Government has learned little, the women were never invited to the apology that was designed to acknowledge the hurt and distress they and others had experienced working in Parliament House.
For reasons that are difficult to fathom, it seems the Prime Minister and the Parliament originally wanted to deliver the apology to an empty chamber in the public gallery.
Instead, Brittany Higgins and fellow former Liberal staffers Josie Coles and Rachelle Miller had to fight down to the final hours before the apology just to get a seat in the room.
It shouldn’t have been like that, but it was. They kept fighting regardless, politely requesting to attend the historic event.
It was a much more powerful moment because they were there.
Higgins sat in the public chamber supported by Chanel Contos, who has led a national campaign to ensure sexual consent is taught in Australian schools from her London share-house.
The Prime Minister wanted to acknowledge Brittany Higgins by name, noting that her “experience and, more importantly, courage, is the reason why we are all here today, and I want to thank her for that.”
That much is true. Sadly, he did not also name the other women in the chamber with her, which is a shame because there were three women sitting there who served the Liberal Party for years and fought for change at significant personal cost.
Others, including Kate Johnson should have been there too.
It was hard for them to sit there and face the stares of parliamentarians, but it was brave of them to turn up.
It was also regrettable that because no formal invitations were offered to women and men who participated in the Jenkins report, that the group did not include any Labor women or from the Greens or other minor parties.
The Prime Minister spoke of a longstanding culture, generations of culture in Parliament of bullying and harassment that has occurred over this time.
“Over many decades, an ecosystem, a culture, was perpetuated where bullying, abuse, harassment, and in some cases even violence, became normalised,’’ he said.
“This has to change. It is changing. And I believe it will change.”
Parliament can’t be a place of cruelty, he said.
Which is of course an interesting thing to say because cruelty has long been a weapon on the floor of Parliament and will continue to be so in the future.
And then finally came the word “Sorry”. The Prime Minister said Parliament understood the power of an apology to bring healing and to bring change.
“I am sorry. We are sorry. I’m sorry to Ms Higgins for the terrible things that took place here,’’ he said.
“And the place that should have been a place of safety and contribution turned out to be a nightmare. But I am sorry for far more than that - for all of those who came before Ms Higgins and endured the same. But she had the courage to stand, and so here we are.”
Then, he warned alleged victims to ensure they went about things in “the proper way.”
“Justice should come and it should always be delivered under the rule of law,’’ he said.
“It will proceed on the basis of fairness and justice, in accordance with the rules of others that are in place in our country, and it will be done in the proper way.”
This is a noble sentiment.
It was also a spear designed to attack those who sought to raise allegations against former Attorney-General Christian Porter and arguably Rachelle Miller and Brittany Higgins too, outside of traditional forums.
It fails to acknowledge that the rule of law and the proper way does not always deliver justice for victims.
When the Prime Minister speaks of the rule of law, he rarely notes how rare it is for alleged rape victims to secure a conviction.
Of course, the proper way would have been to invite all of these women from the start.
That didn’t happen, but they turned up anyway.
Powerful, brave, flawed and human, Australia should be grateful that they did.
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