Richard Dowling (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I note this is not my first speech. No student should be forced to choose between their education and their safety. For years now, the evidence has been clear and deeply troubling with respect to gender based violence in higher education communities, and specifically I refer to sexual assault and harassment. In earlier stages of this debate we heard a lot about statistics and figures, but I will repeat one of them from the National Student Safety Survey of 2021: one in 20 students reported sexual assault. Of these, only five per cent made a formal complaint. What does that mean? It means that, in a cohort of a thousand students, 50 have been assaulted, yet fewer than three of those assaults were formally reported. These are distressing figures. Just think about it: in any lecture theatre across the country, about five out of every hundred students in the room have experienced sexual assault since starting university. These figures are, of course, worse for females and even worse for students that identify as gender diverse and for students with a disability. Sadly, most have been left to carry that burden in silence, without knowing how to get the support they need and deserve. Starting university is supposed to be one of the most exciting periods of your life; it turns into one of the most terrifying.

Violence impacts a victim-survivor's mental and physical health and wellbeing. It can and does also negatively affect students' educational outcomes. They may be less able to attend or participate in classes, and in some cases they will withdraw from their studies altogether. I note the STOP Campaign submission to the Universities Accord panel, which found:

Multiple respondents detailed that they now live with mental health impacts, such as PTSD, anxiety, depression, suicide attempts, disordered eating and panic attacks as a result of their experiences. Many respondents also noted they were unable to go to class or attend campus in general due to fear of running into their perpetrator. Some were also forced to continue living in the same accommodation as their perpetrator, constantly living in a state of fear. Socially, victim-survivors often chose to not engage in social events as they felt unsafe. Some respondents also noted the destruction of past relationships and difficulty creating new relationships as a result of their experience of violence and harm.

That is a pretty disturbing submission from the STOP Campaign. Staff are also victims of gender based violence, and it can obviously result in reduced performance, absenteeism and more turnover of staff. These impacts directly challenge the core mission of universities and the education they provide.

It's our responsibility in this place to ensure proper governance, transparent reporting and accountability, to make sure that harm is prevented and that, when harm does occur, it is properly responded to—that is, a response that ensures people are heard and have access to the trauma informed support they need to order to successfully achieve their educational outcomes. That's precisely what the Universities Accord (National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence) Bill 2025 and the Universities Accord (National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence) (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2025 set out to do. These bills are a key outcome of the Action Plan Addressing Gender-based Violence in Higher Education, which all education ministers across the federation signed up to. Once passed, these bills will hold higher education providers to consistently high standards to proactively prevent and respond to gender based violence.

The Universities Accord (National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence) Bill 2025 introduces a National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence. It will ensure our universities and other higher education providers put safety first. It strengthens prevention, improves responses when harm happens and holds providers accountable for how they perform, right down to student accommodation. The Minister for Education will be able to set a national code that lays down best practice standards, and every provider will need to meet those standards.

To monitor and enforce the code, a new specialist gender based violence unit will be established within the Department of Education. Vice-chancellors and CEOs will be directly responsible for making sure their institutions comply, and they'll have to report every six months to their governing bodies. Compliance won't be a tick-and-flick exercise. It will require regular reporting on incident data and steps being taken to prevent and respond to gender based violence.

Let us recall that the 2017 Human Rights Commission recommended that every university establish advisory committees to address sexual violence. That recommendation was in 2017. Yet, as reporting by the ABC in February last year showed, a third of universities still did not have such committees. And too many fall short on transparency. This bill brings the transparency and oversight necessary—regular annual reporting through the minister and to parliament—and enhances accountability. By driving whole-of-institution cultural and regulatory reform in the higher education system, with over 1.5 million students and 130,000 staff, the bill will also help lead social change.

Another measure from the Action Plan Addressing Gender-based Violence in Higher Education is the introduction of the National Student Ombudsman, who commenced in February this year. The Student Ombudsman enables higher education students to escalate complaints about the actions of their higher education provider, including gender based violence complaints. What I'm most pleased about with this bill is that the code will also include an enforceable requirement that providers implement the recommendations of the National Student Ombudsman. As Minister Clare noted in the other place, this gives the findings and recommendations of the ombudsman real teeth and will make sure they are put in place to improve our universities and other providers.

I will finish with some STOP Campaign submission quotes. Again, these are direct quotes from students. They are quite distressing, but I think it's really important to record why we are having this discussion now. The first quote is from a young student who said:

I experienced assault as a young adolescent. I was so excited to leave my home town and attend university, live on campus and make friends. It was one of the worst experiences of my life … The culture on campus is indisputably unsafe and toxic.

It's pretty damning. Secondly, another student said:

I withdrew socially after I was assaulted, and struggled to scrape through my final year of university. I ended up deferring my Honours and not going back to university … because I couldn't deal with walking around places where I knew I might see my perpetrators, or be reminded of them.

And finally, another said: 'I had panic attacks before class because I knew the perpetrator was in the class with me.' These are statements directly from students. That's why we're here debating this bill now, and it's more than overdue. The students should never have had these experiences. Horrifically, they did. It's incredibly brave that they did speak up. Because of their bravery, we can now take action. I'd like to read a final quote from the campaign submission which simply states:

Please listen to the voices of students and survivors as these are the opinions that matter.

For too long, students have been let down by their universities and by inaction by previous governments. That changes today. Students should be able to learn at universities and live on campus free from harassment or assault. We should do everything we can to reduce harm experienced within university settings. Let's be clear: passing this bill is not the end of the work. It's the foundation. No student should be forced to choose between their education and their safety. It's that simple.