Susie O’Brien: City of Melbourne sexual harassment claims will take a toll on both parties
THE sexual harassment claims against Robert Doyle will take a toll on both parties, and should be fully investigated — but the Lord Mayor deserves natural justice, not a trial by media, writes Susie O’Brien.
Susie O'Brien
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ON Friday, the lives of both Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle and former City of Melbourne Councillor Tessa Sullivan changed forever.
On that day, Sullivan formally accused Doyle of sexual harassment, misconduct and sexual assault.
On one hand, we have a popular and experienced former politician and Lord Mayor. Although known to be physically affectionate at times, he’s regarded as a good bloke widely respected by his staff.
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On the other hand, we have Sullivan, who is a lawyer, a qualified mediator and an officer of the Supreme Court of Victoria. She’s less well known, but her CV is very impressive.
Both have a lot to lose.
Last week, Sullivan resigned from the council, lodging a complaint about Doyle whose team she was on. She alleged he made lewd comments, told her “I love cunnilingus” and once grabbed her breast.
She alleged he would kiss and hug her inappropriately and once touched the thigh of another woman during a meeting in 2014.
The latter incident was allegedly witnessed by a third councillor.
These are serious allegations from a well-educated, experienced woman and deserve to be properly investigated. It appears this process is already underway. In this post-Weinstein era, no one sweeps such complaints under the carpet anymore.
But Doyle also deserves natural justice and not trial by media. It is alarming that Doyle says he had not been told of any specifics and learned what his accuser said he had done only through the media. That is wrong.
Doyle is right to claim it is a denial of natural justice and bad for his reputation.
But Sullivan is also right to be outraged at suggestions from one of Doyle’s Twitter followers that she is using unproven harassment allegations as a method of “political and career-based assassination”.
The fact that more than one woman has come forward in this case is relevant.
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If it is proven that Doyle has done what has been claimed, then he should resign immediately as Lord Mayor and co-operate with any investigation.
At this point, Doyle is strongly denying any inappropriate behaviour and gave a very spirited and passionate defence speech yesterday, calling the allegations “abhorrent”.
Such fighting words may mean little: most men accused of similar crimes initially utter such words until they find there’s no point.
Also irrelevant is the fact that Doyle says he runs an office of only women. Depending on the individual involved, this is either a very good sign or a very bad one.
It should be remembered that false claims of sexual harassment or sexual assault do happen, but are very rare.
Not too much should be made of the fact that it’s being alleged Sullivan carried on as usual after the alleged events took place.
Many victims — especially when they are more junior staff members — feel they have no choice but to keep working.
It’s also not relevant that Sullivan made a similar claim before, when she accused another high-profile Melburnian of making lewd comments about her breasts at a social function.
What is interesting to me are media reports that quote a “council insider” who says the Lord Mayor would put his arm around Sullivan, but did it in a “supportive way”.
He would also show “innocent” signs of affection by kissing the top of her head, it’s been claimed. This is a third pathway that does occur in some sexual harassment cases.
I am not saying it happened here, but it does happen. Years ago, I was a sexual harassment contact office in the Equal Opportunity Office at the University of Adelaide. My job was to be a first responder to sexual harassment complaints from students and staff.
In one case, some male undergrad students took a fellow female student’s photo and put her head on a bikini model and pasted it on posters around the campus.
That was clear-cut sexual harassment.
At other times the complainant and the alleged harasser agreed on what physically occurred, but disagreed violently about the intent of the acts. They agreed the behaviour was sexual in nature, but disagreed over whether it was consensual or not.
For instance, there was a science post graduate who regularly hugged another postgrad he shared a lab with. In one man’s eyes, it was merely a sign of friendship; in the other man’s eyes it was an unwanted sexual advance and constituted sexual harassment.
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In such cases, an external objective person is employed to be a voice of reason; how would the average person react or feel in the circumstances? This is to protect people from unwarranted and vexatious complaints.
Some are saying we are entering a #metoo era where allegations are too easy to make. I don’t believe that is true. It would have taken Sullivan a lot of guts to go public with her claims.
Ultimately, though, once a reputation is lost, it’s gone for ever, as I am sure Doyle is keenly aware.
SUSIE O’BRIEN IS A HERALD SUN COLUMNIST.
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