This was published 3 years ago
Canberra bubble burst: once silent survivors now ‘making some noise’
On a hot summer night in Canberra, Grace Tame stood next to the Prime Minister and issued a call to arms.
The eloquent and impassioned 26-year-old had just been named the 2021 Australian of the Year for her work campaigning for survivors of child sexual abuse, like her, and to overturn a Tasmanian law that prevented victims from being named.
Australian of the Year Grace Tame accepts her award in January. She has become an inspiration for sexual assault survivors including Brittany Higgins.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“I remember him [her abuser] saying don’t tell anybody. I remember him saying don’t make a sound. Well, hear me now,” Tame said, her words beamed out across the nation. “Using my voice amongst a growing chorus of voices that will not be silenced. Let’s make some noise, Australia.”
Federal ministerial staffer Brittany Higgins, the same age as Tame, watched this powerful speech and made a decision of her own. She quit her job two weeks later, re-engaged with police, and on February 15 went public with her allegations she was raped by a colleague in March 2019 on the couch of their then-boss Linda Reynolds in Parliament House.
Numerous reports about the culture in Parliament House - in mid-2019, December that year and again in late 2020 - had generated concern for a few days and then more or less faded from public consciousness.
But Higgins’ story burst the Canberra bubble like nothing else.
Since Brittany Higgins accused a colleague of rape, three more women have come forward with accusations about the same man using a similar modus operandi.Credit: The Project
Liberal MP Fiona Martin, who was a practising psychologist before entering Parliament, phoned her teenage daughter to find out if she’d seen the news and to reassure her about the place the first-term politician was now working in.
“I want my daughters to think they could come and work in Parliament and be safe,” Martin says, while conceding there was a lot to do to improve the culture and standards of the place. She proposed initial ideas including offering mental health services within Parliament House and including psychological testing to the vetting process for advisers when they are hired.
Fellow freshman Liberal Melissa McIntosh said this week Parliament had to become a place where everyone was respected, protected and listened to.
“I can tell you that being in Canberra, everyone has felt shocked, distressed and sick, that a young woman who is a staffer could experience sexual assault in what is our second home. This should never happen,” she says. “We are all wanting to ensure Brittany Higgins is the last person that has to go through this in our workplace.”
Minister for Women Marise Payne on Friday said the events of the past three weeks had been “disturbing, distressing and horrifying” and had shown that Parliament was “starkly, clearly not immune from these sorts of issues”.
Despite the efforts of individual female MPs, the message Australians are hearing is that Parliament is not a safe place for women.
Caitlin Figueiredo founded Jasiri Australia’s Girls Take Over Parliament program to encourage more young women to consider a political career and equip them with skills to do so. Over the past few years, 95 per cent of those who complete the two-month program, including a stint in Parliament House, say they want to pursue politics.
A survey of past participants this week found less than one in three now wanted to become involved in politics in any way. Nine in 10 said that right now, there was no way they would consider running for office.
Tame underscored this feeling when asked at the National Press Club on Wednesday if she would ever consider seeking election. “Nooooooooo,” was her response.
At the same time, an Essential Research poll of 1074 Australians found three in five did not trust political offices to ensure work was a safe place for women. Two-thirds said the government was more interested in protecting itself than women who had been assaulted and 61 per cent said politics had a particular problem with harassment and assault, more so than other workplaces.
Figueiredo says even though she thought the negative stories about parliamentary culture would have some impact, she was shocked at the results.
“I cannot tell you how heartbreaking it is to hear what these young women are telling us,” she says.
“They want to be engaged in politics but they don’t feel safe, they don’t feel like their voices are being heard, they don’t feel like the women in politics are being supported or even considered as human beings.
“It feels like we’re setting up our country for failure. By not making politics safe for every individual, we’re actively discouraging the next generation of young women and leaders from wanting to enter public service, from wanting to shape our country for the better.”
Higgins going public with her allegations – at the start of a fortnight of parliamentary sittings – before making a formal complaint to police ensured there were days of pressure on Morrison, Reynolds and other ministers about who knew and did what and when. It culminated in Reynolds admitting herself to hospital for a pre-existing heart condition, the same day she was due to speak at the National Press Club, and AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw writing to MPs with the instruction they should pass on to police on any allegations of criminal behaviour as a matter of urgency.
In the midst of all this, Labor’s Senate leader Penny Wong and Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young - both South Australians - received an anonymous dossier outlining historical rape allegations against Attorney-General Christian Porter. They passed it on to police. Liberal MP Celia Hammond, who was initially given the task of reviewing the culture within Coalition MPs’ offices, also received a copy and made the prime minister’s office aware of it.
The ABC’s Four Corners aired a story on February 26 outlining the allegations that an unnamed cabinet minister had raped a woman at a schools’ debating competition in 1988, when he was 17 and she 16. The woman took her own life last June.
Attorney-General Christian Porter at his press conference on Wednesday where he denied allegations he raped a member of his high school debating team when he was 17. Credit: Trevor Collens
After days of online speculation about the minister’s identity, Porter gave an emotional press conference on Wednesday to out himself and deny the allegations. “It just didn’t happen,” he said repeatedly.
Hours before Porter fronted media, the nation heard from Tame again. She again called on survivors of sexual abuse to use their voices, to be bold and courageous, and for governments to listen and enact national reforms.
“It is up to us as a community, as a country, to create a space, a national movement where survivors feel supported and free to share their truths,” she said. “Let’s drive a paradigm shift of shame away from those who have been abused and onto abusive behaviour.”
Just as Tame’s words in January inspired Higgins to speak up, the staffer sharing her story has prompted others to come forward. Three other women spoke anonymously to media about their experiences at the hands of the same man Higgins has alleged raped her. Worksafe ACT has had a surge in reports of sexual harassment. The Herald and The Age are aware of other staffers now considering what to do with their own stories of bullying and sexual harassment.
Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins is now seeking out these stories from current and former staffers, elected representatives and others who work in Parliament House for an independent review of its workplace culture. She will make an interim report in July and a final one in November, with a view to offering ways that Parliament can transform itself into an exemplar workplace. A similar review of the South Australian parliament released last week found sexual harassment and bullying were rife but rarely reported.
Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins will lead the review.Credit: Paul Jeffers
Just one year ago, Jenkins handed her landmark, nearly 1000-page report on workplace sexual harassment to the government. She took in 460 submissions, many from anonymous individuals, held 60 consultations and made 55 recommendations. Her office estimates the government has started work to implement three of these; Payne says nine are in progress. Recently appointed assistant minister to the attorney-general Amanda Stoker is overseeing the work as Christian Porter was the minister Jenkins gave the Respect@Work report to in January 2020.
For support call the National Sexual Assault, Family & Domestic Violence Counselling Line: 1800 737 732. Lifeline: (13 11 14 and lifeline.org.au), the Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467 and suicidecallbackservice.org.au) and beyondblue (1300 22 4636 and beyondblue.org.au).