‘Alleged ALP culprits must out themselves’, says Mark Dreyfus

Labor frontbencher Mark Dreyfus has called for men in the party who sexually harass or assault ­female colleagues to out themselves.

Opposition legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus says alleged male perpetrators should self-identify. Picture: AAP

Labor frontbencher Mark Dreyfus has called for men in the party who sexually harass or assault ­female colleagues to out themselves, as senior MPs warn that they cannot investigate alle­gations unless complainants come forward.

Dozens of anonymous alle­gations shared on a private Facebook group for current and former Labor staffers have been published this week, including that a married man “plied” a woman with drinks before having non-consensual sex.

“The next day he texted to demand she take the morning after pill and blamed her for what happened, saying she was so drunk she came on to him,” it was ­alleged. “He threatened: ‘Tell no one.’ ”

After Labor cabinet secretary Jenny McAllister urged male colleagues who had made women uncomfortable to think about how to change their behaviour and apologise, Mr Dreyfus, the opposition’s legal affairs spokesman, told the ABC men at the centre of ­allegations should self-identify “as far as that’s possible”.

“I’m not sure about the mechanism that we’d go about it because … this is a closed Facebook group. The allegations have been put forward on an anonymous basis. But men who have been perpetrators of these kinds of acts need to reflect on their conduct, they need to be part of the change we need to take place.”

Shadow special minister of state Don Farrell told Labor colleagues on Tuesday there were several avenues that MPs and staff could use to make complaints, such as through the party’s recently updated sexual harassment and bullying policy and the newly set up government-funded, 24/7 support hotline for incidents that occur in parliamentary workplaces.

Questioned over what Labor was doing to investigate alle­gations made in the Facebook group for staffers, opposition women’s spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek said the party was unable to investigate anonymous allegations unless victims came forward with complaints.

“I’m not part of that Facebook group because it is for staff,” she told Sky News. “But I’ve had those issues drawn to my attention. And with a number of other senior Labor women MPs, we have sent a message through the Facebook group … laying out what they can do if they want to make a formal complaint and making it very, very clear we will be there for them, that we are 100 per cent backing them to call out problems, and backing them if they want to come forward.

“These things have to be guided by the person making the complaint. We don’t want to re-traumatise people. We need to be respectful of people who raise these issues and bring them forward. If you’ve got sexual assault or harassment, the action taken needs to be determined by the ­victim.”