Extract from The Guardian
Former
government staffer says her meeting with prime minister was ‘driven by
my desire to ensure no one would have to go through the trauma I
experienced’
Brittany Higgins arrives for the meeting with prime minister Scott Morrison in Sydney.
Last modified on Fri 30 Apr 2021 20.44 AEST
The former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins has told Scott Morrison the government needs to “show leadership” to deliver cultural change in the Australian parliament and protect political staffers against predatory behaviour in their workplace.
According to notes prepared for a meeting with Morrison on Friday, Higgins – the former government staffer who alleges she was raped by a colleague in a ministerial office in 2019 – told the prime minister she had been “driven by my desire to ensure that no other person would have to go through the trauma that I experienced during my time as a political staffer”.
“For too long the culture of silence has allowed workplace bullying, harassment and other inappropriate conduct to go unchecked,” Higgins’ notes said.
“Political advisers have very few protections, resources and confidential reporting mechanisms to address any workplace issues. They are not public servants and work in an extremely high-pressure environment.
“Too often, a toxic workplace culture can emerge that enables inappropriate conduct and this is exacerbated by the disparity in the power dynamics. The onus is now on the government to show leadership on this issue and act to ensure what I endured is not allowed to happen again.”
Morrison flagged at the end of March he would meet privately with Higgins after she made a formal complaint to the prime minister’s chief of staff, John Kunkel, asking him to examine whether government staff had backgrounded against her or her loved ones – but the meeting did not take place until Friday.
After Friday’s meeting, she told journalists in Sydney that Morrison had acknowledged during a “robust” and “difficult” conversation that the system had let her down and reform needed to happen.
“I think [the prime minister] fundamentally seemed to understand what had happened to me, and how it happened in a more holistic way,” Higgins said. “That was encouraging, I think, by the end of the conversation.”
In a statement issued after the meeting, Morrison said he was committed, along with Higgins, “to reform of the parliamentary workplace”.
“I look forward to her participating in the ongoing discussions on this matter through the independent review into commonwealth parliamentary workplaces,” he said.
“Ms Higgins’ views and experience will be invaluable to the work of [the sex discrimination] commissioner, Kate Jenkins. I acknowledged her courage in coming forward and assisting in this work.
“… In addition, the meeting was an opportunity to thank her personally for her contribution to my government. As I told parliament, whether it’s members, senators, or our staff, we all want to make a contribution to our country and we should be able to do that in a safe environment for everyone.”
Higgins wants the government to create an independent parliamentary human resources authority to deal with staff matters, with functions provided at arm’s length from government. She is also seeking changes to the legislation governing the employment of parliamentary staff to end the currently unfettered power of parliamentarians to hire and fire staff.
Morrison said he was “committed to achieving an independent process to deal with these difficult issues” but would wait for the reviews that have been ordered first.
“I expect that both Ms Foster’s and Commissioner Jenkins’ reviews will recommend how to deliver this important reform,” he said, referring to a workplace culture inquiry led by the deputy secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Stephanie Foster, and another by Jenkins.
The former staffer also wants more transparency on the so-called “star chamber” that governs the appointment of government staff.
Higgins also wants to broaden the conversation beyond the experiences of political staff. She went into Friday’s meeting armed with statistics about sexual harassment and violence in the Australian community.
Higgins noted a survey by the Australian Human Rights Commission had revealed that almost two in five women (39%) and just over one in four men (26%) have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace in the past five years, with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people more likely to have experienced workplace sexual harassment than people who are non-Indigenous (53% and 32% respectively).
She also cited a study from Deloitte Access Economics finding that sexual harassment costs the Australian economy $3.8bn annually.
Higgins also met with the Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, on Friday.
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