Thirty allegations of serious crimes – including sexual assault – lodged with parliament’s support service

Thirty reports of serious wrongdoing – including sexual assault, stalking and intimidation – have been lodged with parliament’s new support service in its first nine months of operation, prompting former staffer Brittany Higgins to ask if perpetrators working in politics are being held to account.

More than three years after Higgins went public with claims she had been raped in then-minister Linda Reynolds’ office, the first annual report published by the support service established in response reveals it handled 339 cases – spanning everything from serious sexual crime allegations to bullying and mental health issues – within nine months.

Parliament’s support service handled 339 cases in its first nine months.Credit: Fairfax

Higgins told this masthead the number of complaints – particularly the 30 in the category that includes sexual assaults and rape – were confronting but not surprising for those who worked in Parliament House, but she added that work to improve the culture had resulted in significant developments since her time.

“There is still work to be done … parties across the political spectrum have continued to publicly and privately deal with serious workplace incidents with varied success,” Higgins said.

“Valid questions remain about whether perpetrators are being held to account, and if government employees are being appropriately supported.”

Most cases are anonymous, but major incidents include Defence Minister Richard Marles’ chief of staff Jo Tarnawsky alleging she was ousted from her job after seeking help over alleged bullying, and independent senator Lidia Thorpe accusing independent senator David Van of harassment.

The behaviour watchdog was established after former sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins’ 2021 report that revealed parliament’s “revolting and humiliating” workplace culture, with the high-stress environment, power imbalances and lack of enforcement on misconduct fuelling a toxic atmosphere.

While the complaints may refer to incidents many years old, the fact that more sexual assaults have been reported raises serious questions about the safety of parliamentary workplaces.

Brittany Higgins outside the Federal Court in November last year.Credit: Kate Geraghty

The support service report spans from October 2023 to June 2024.

Nine per cent, or 30, of the allegations were in the category that takes in rape, sexual assault, assault, sexual harassment, stalking or intimidation, while 10 per cent were bullying claims.

Eighteen per cent related to family and domestic violence, alcohol, drug or mental health incidents and more than a quarter, 27 per cent, were workplace conflicts. A further 124 cases were classified as unknown or other.

The annual report further reveals that more than 50 per cent of the complaints were lodged by political staffers, 12 per cent by parliamentary department staff, and 17 per cent by MPs or senators.

Complaints do not necessarily come from alleged victims inside parliament. Allegations or calls of concern can be made by friends or colleagues, and the service is also available to people working in parliament who experience a personal incident unrelated to their workplace or colleagues.

“The sexual assault percentage may appear to be high because support staff take a trauma-informed approach and record incidents as described by the client,” a footnote in the report stated.

“People use the expression ‘sexual assault’ to describe a wide range of conduct, from feeling uncomfortable about how a person looked at them to what would be a traditional use of the word rape.

“It is likely that very few of those matters would actually be allegations of rape. Those that are could include matters also reported to the police [or] sex discrimination commissioner, and would include matters that predate the current and previous term of parliament.”

The watchdog provides both support and review services until the Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission, which will investigate alleged serious breaches of workplace safety, is fully operational.

In 2021, Higgins alleged that her colleague Bruce Lehrmann raped her in Parliament House in 2019. Lehrmann’s criminal trial was aborted in 2022 following juror misconduct. Lehrmann then launched a defamation case against media reporting of Higgins’ allegations.

In April, Federal Court Justice Michael Lee ruled on the balance of probabilities that Lehrmann had raped Higgins. Lehrmann has always maintained his innocence and is now appealing against the judgment.

The Parliamentary Workplace Support Service (PWSS) came under fire in October over claims it was briefing lawyers to deal with Tarnawsky (Marles’ chief of staff), who claimed that the legal counsel was oppositional and taking instructions from the deputy prime minister.

Tarnawsky’s lawyer, Michael Bradley, said he was unsurprised that there was no recorded resolution, describing the service as “a scheme that’s been set up to fail”.

“The PWSS ends up being a support service for the member of parliament, including providing the member of parliament with free legal support, and the staffer is left on their own,” he said.

The service’s legal costs for the nine months hit almost $370,000, including in-house staff.

“The PWSS maintains an in-house legal capacity, and the figure for internal expenditure represents salaries and other overheads required to fund that capability,” the human resources body said in a statement.

The human resources service is also investigating independent senator Lidia Thorpe’s accusations of harassment against independent senator David Van in June last year. Van has denied the allegations.

Thorpe told this masthead that the service staff were helpful, but she found they had no power to resolve matters.

“It’s frustrating and disappointing,” she said.

Four formal complaints of bullying have also been made by staff of Greens senator Dorinda Cox to the parliamentary service.

National sexual assault, family & domestic violence counselling line: 1800 737 732. Crisis support can be found at Lifeline: 13 11 14.

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