Former ALP female staffer Anna Jabour wants all sides to ‘end the rot’

A former Labor staffer says har­assment and sexual assault in and around Parliament House will not stop until perpetrators are cleared out.

Former Labor staffer Anna Jabour was 21 when she worked in federal parliament. ‘It was the culture alone that made me not want to stay,’ she said.

Former Labor staffer Anna Jabour has warned that the sexual har­assment and sexual assault that occurs in and around Parliament House will not stop — even with policy changes — until male perpetrators are cleared out.

Ms Jabour, 29, decided to go public with her own story of being allegedly groomed and used for sex by an older male colleague after she was infuriated by the “media storm” and Labor’s response to former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins’ rape allegation.

“I didn’t think it was fair that it was just all focused on one side (of politics). I know from personal experience and from being friends with people on both sides of politics at every level of politics that it happens to all women,” Ms Jabour told The Australian.

“Sometimes you think you’re crazy when this (alleged abuse) happens,” she said. “You question yourself constantly. When you’re in that culture, it’s ‘Oh no, don’t say anything, don’t talk about it, they’re away from their wives, their partners, you don’t understand the pressure’.

“I talked to some people about it but the advice was to leave, it wasn’t to take it further. It’s a protection racket for men. Women are pushed out and denigrated and defined as unemployable or pushed to the side — they have to move careers. The men who are the ­perpetrators get promoted.”

Ms Jabour said the culture within Labor and parliament more broadly would not change unless parties were called out and alleged perpetrators held accountable, saying an independent complaints handling process recently approved by the ALP’s national executive would not have helped.

The alleged grooming of Ms ­Jabour occurred in 2013 when she worked for about six months for former prime ministers Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd.

While she would consider participating in Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins’s inquiry into parliament’s workplace culture if approached, she said she had little faith in review processes.

“What’s the point of the policy if you’re not actually clearing the rot? That’s on all sides of politics,” she said. “If they don’t change the people who are working for the parties, what’s the point?”

Ms Jabour said her alleged perpetrator had messaged her and apologised for what he did after she published an opinion piece on the news.com.au website last week. She was struggling to accept the apology but hoped her story showed other women they could speak out about their abuse.

She was also upset that a separate Labor person, who she described as “one of the most toxic figures” in the party, was still working in ­federal parliament.

Anthony Albanese on Monday urged all women who had been sexually harassed or assaulted by Labor figures to come forward and make a complaint, after dozens of anonymous allegations were shared on a Facebook group for current and former staffers.

The posts included allegations of a married man propositioning female staffers, messaging them up to 50 times in a single evening and victim-blaming.

One woman alleged that a married Labor figure promised others he would get her home safely after he had “plied” her with drinks but “before putting her in the cab he had sex with her when she had no ability to consent”.

The Opposition Leader said “I believe women who come forward”, as he talked up the party’s new processes for making complaints, which were agreed by the national executive last month.

“There are processes there that are available, and I would encourage women to come forward. I ­encourage women to speak out. I encourage men to listen to those concerns and to respond,” Mr Albanese said.

“Harassment and sexist behaviour and indeed patriarchy doesn’t exist just on one side of politics. It exists throughout society.”

Mr Albanese would not say if he would stand aside any of his shadow ministers if one was the subject of allegations, but opposition industrial relations spokesman Tony Burke said any frontbencher should step down if they were investigated for the serious allegations outlined in the Facebook group.

“If it is of the gravity of some of what I’ve seen, then the answer is yes,” Mr Burke told the ABC.

Opposition education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek said she had been doing “my share to change the culture of the Labor Party for very many years”.

“But I don’t feel like I’ve got it right yet either,” she said.

“The fact that we have Labor Party staff members coming out in recent days saying that they haven’t felt appropriately supported in their workplace, that makes me feel terribly sad and sorry. So we all need to do better in this respect.”