Panel of experts to undertake 'gender equality audit' of defence force

SEX Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick and a panel of experts will lead a review into the treatment of women in the defence force.

SEX Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick and a panel of experts experienced in working in "male-dominated environments" will lead a review into the treatment of women in the defence force and its academy.

The review, to be conducted through the Australian Human Rights Commission, will complete a "gender equality audit" of the Australian Defence Force Academy and check the progress of strategies previously recommended to increase the role of women in defence.

Ms Broderick will be assisted by a panel of experts -- yet to be appointed -- who will have knowledge and experience "working with cultural change in male-dominated environments".

The commissioner said yesterday she had accepted the role "on the express understanding" that the findings of her review would be taken seriously and the recommendations acted upon.

" I expect the review will identify practical recommendations for creating an environment that is inclusive of both men and women, where violence, harassment and bullying have no place," she said.

"I anticipate that this review will identify any weaknesses and recommend solutions, as well as advance the existing strengths in the organisation."

Ms Broderick had previously commented on the Skype-sex scandal engulfing the ADFA, saying a macho "boys" culture dominated the defence force.

"It needs to have a culture where, if something like that happens to me, I can immediately go to at least my line manager and I get some immediate action -- that's the first port of call," she told Sky News last week.

Last Friday, former Howard government defence minister Peter Reith admitted that cultural change needed to start immediately. "The culture basically is that when the incident arrives, there's sort of a meeting of the tactics committee group and the media group and they chat to whoever's the chief of the services or whoever and they basically try and put a lid on it," he told ABC TV.

"They go into process to try and respond to it politically and in the public arena, but in the end they don't actually confront the reality of the problem, read the riot act to one and all, and actually address and fix the problem."

University of Sydney professor Marian Baird says change can only start at the bottom. "You probably can't do it at the organisational level," she said.