How PM’s wife made him take action on rape

Scott Morrison says one question his wife Jenny asked him about an alleged rape at Parliament House in 2019 has made him take action.

Scott Morrison says he is taking a stand to ensure women working in Parliament House are safe after an alleged rape in a ministerial office.

Young Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins broke her silence this week, claiming she was raped by a colleague at Parliament House and brought to a formal employment meeting about the incident in the room the alleged sexual 2019 assault occurred.

Speaking on Tuesday morning, the prime minister said a conversation with his wife Jenny changed his perspective.

“Jenny and I spoke last night,” he said.

“And she said to me, ‘You have to think about this as a father first. What would you want to happen if it were our girls?’

“Jenny has a way of clarifying things; she always has.”

Mr Morrison said he wanted to make sure any young woman working in parliament, including his daughters if they went down that path, were confident about their safety.

RELATED Parliament rape claim ‘distressing’: PM

Scott Morrison with his wife, Jenny, and daughters Abbey and Lily in Sydney. Picture: POOL via NCA NewsWire / Jenny Evans

Mr Morrison said he had listened to Ms Higgins and there was a number of things “we can do immediately”.

They include first addressing the environment in Parliament House, which Liberal MP Celia Hammond had offered to help with.

Ms Hammond is the former vice-chancellor of Notre Dame University, who worked to prevent sexual assault and sexual harassment on campus.

Mr Morrison said she would lead a process with chief whips to identify how the culture could be improved.

He said the process was not “handled sufficiently” and that he was going to ask Prime Minister and Cabinet deputy secretary Stephanie Foster to advise on what could be done to support people when “incidents of this nature arise”.

This could include referring any alleged sexual assaults immediately to the department so there could be an “arm’s length arrangement” for the individual to be supported outside of their office.

“If Anthony Albanese and his team wish to have their process or engage in that, well of course we’d welcome them,” he said.

“It shatters me that still, in this day and age, that a young woman can find herself in a vulnerable situation that she was not her doing.

“So, I hope Brittany’s call is a wake-up for all of us from that point of view.”

Mr Morrison speaking at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

Mr Morrison said he first heard about the allegations 24 hours ago and would “happily” offer Ms Higgins an apology – after she was called into an employment meeting in the room where the alleged incident took place.

CCTV from the night of the alleged incident was retained by the Department of Parliamentary Services at the request of police.

Earlier in the day, deputy Labor leader Richard Marles said the incident was “an indictment on this building”.

“This is not a partisan issue, this is a workplace issue about Parliament House,” Mr Marles told ABC RN.

“So long as there are women who feel that it is not safe to work here that is a terrible indictment.

“This is a building that should be upholding the highest standards of employment and I do think, as much as all of us love working here, there is an issue here.”

Mr Marles said the opposition’s own code of conduct and sexual harassment policy – triggered by a Four Corners report last year – was “not far off”.

“We’ve sought to update that to make sure that it’s best practice and my understanding is that will come about imminently,” he said.