Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I wish I was not having to speak on this issue. I long for the day when we, as a parliament—indeed, as a community—do not know the meaning of gender based violence because it's no longer part of our lexicon. But, sadly, that is not the case. That is not the world we live in, even in 2025. Students and staff in any workplace need to feel safe. That is especially so in our educational spaces—in our schools, as well as in our higher education settings. For too long, this problem of gender based violence has really been swept under the carpet.

There has been a testimonial injustice dealt out to the many students who have raised concerns, over at least a decade, with the powers that be in our universities. We all know, but take for granted, that safety is a prerequisite to participation—in any setting, whether it be work or study, or in training centres, sporting teams and so on. But if you do believe, as I do, that education is the most powerful lever we have to climb up that ladder of social mobility, then not addressing gender based violence or any other type of barrier to participation is a denial of this country's wealth. It's denying our country the kind of wealth that it should realise because it holds people back. It holds people back and it results in worse social and educational outcomes ultimately.

We know the statistics around gender based violence—something like one in 12 students in the past 12 months have experienced sexual harassment and one in six since starting university. That's very common. That's highly common. With regards to sexual assault, most extreme type of violence, it is one in 90 in the last 12 months and one in 20 since starting university.

These are almost certainly going to be underreported compared to the reality because most people do not disclose these types of events because the response, frankly, from the universities has been pretty poor. It's been completely substandard. We also know that, in terms of formal complaints made to the university, one in 30 students who were sexually harassed made a formal complaint. That's only three per cent. There is gross underreporting, and it is the same with sexual assault—only 5.6 per cent have reported and made formal complaints to the university. The question must be asked as to why that is so.

In terms of the most prevalent settings within a higher education context, these incidents tend to occur in clubs and societies followed by student accommodation—student accommodation, where people basically try and find sanctuary after a busy day at university or in class, wouldn't have been on my radar—and, of course, then in private homes and residences. It is simply not good enough.

But the statistics belie the real burden, and that's only conveyed through qualitative data. I'll read out a few quotes here. This is from a student who experienced unsolicited sexual advances—common; I certainly experienced it when I was a junior doctor—'Despite clearly mentioning that I was not interested, my colleague approached me. It was an invasion of personal space, and we were in my room preparing for an exam. He tried to kiss me, and I pulled back in shock. He said, "But you were talking so openly about wanting romantic and sexual freedom."' In what universe is that even acceptable? Apparently, this is the norm in our universities.

Then there are, of course, the catcalls. Is there any woman or girl around who has not ever been subjected to catcalls—yelling, whistling, honking of cars and, worst case, stalking, which we know is even more prevalent now thanks to our online virtual worlds. This from a student: 'I was at college event at the bar ordering drinks, and this guy came up to me clearly drunk. He tried to look under my dress. I felt very self-conscious and walked away as fast as I could.' There are many women, girls and young women out there who have experienced this, and we all know what that feels like. You tend to freeze. You are so self-conscious and threatened that you revert to your primal response, which is fight or flight, and if it's flight, it's a sense of paralysis.

Then of course there are the invasive questions, the inappropriate language and the inappropriate jokes. 'Going to university, I dealt with men stalking me online, following my class timetable at uni to know where I was, and I tried to avoid them.' There was one quote that particularly jumped out at me from a student who used the bus at night-time to get about university. As you know, universities instituted these transport services at night in order to actually help students, particularly women, feel safe. But this is what one student disclosed: 'I was asked extremely private, personal and uncomfortable questions about my sex life by a uni bus driver when he used to drive me around the campus late at night.' You're essentially a captive audience in that kind of setting. It's just awful to read.

We also know that there are certain faculties and subjects at university which are male-dominated, and these areas are fraught, particularly for women students. These domains of study desperately need more gender balance in order to drive the kind of cultural change that is essential at university level. But this is what women encounter: 'I am a young woman who has studied in a massively male-dominated field. I often face comments from fellow students and lecturers about my physical appearance, ranging from unnecessary compliments to sexual and degrading comments. At times, when I have rejected the romantic advances from other students, I have been threatened to have my name slandered, which has the potential to greatly harm my academic career. I have also had men engage in intimidating behaviours after my rejection of them. I constantly fear being too nice.' That is the experience of millions of Australian women currently, as well as that of women in the past, and it's really as a nod to them that we are bringing forward this legislation.

As you know, Acting Deputy President O'Sullivan, in February of this year the National Student Ombudsman opened its doors for the first time. This is essentially a watchdog for the university sector. It is a watchdog with teeth. It has all the powers of a royal commission. It's designed to hold universities to account and increase transparency. It also has an educative role. So, if students are not getting the kinds of results that they need to get from universities, they can escalate to the ombudsman on all kinds of matters: discrimination, racism, Islamophobia, antisemitism, gender based violence—you name it. But that's not enough; we have to go further, and that is why we've introduced this legislation.

This legislation will essentially bring forward a more robust framework to address gender based violence in universities, and it builds upon the ombudsman work. It essentially puts the onus on higher education providers to introduce preventive strategies, and it will have a much stronger compliance function with penalties attached. It imposes a positive duty on universities to lift their game. It will have a national code which will set best practice standards, which will be informed by the experts, and it will attempt to address the drivers that lead to this kind of behaviour. It will certainly prioritise prevention. It will hold the boards and the chairs, who are the vice-chancellors, the CEOs, of universities to account, and I think that's really important. If you really want to drive cultural change, you have to start at the top—you have to hold the top dogs accountable—and this is what this legislation will do. It will have an educative function and it will be transparent. It will report to the parliament. There will be regular reporting of incident data in these institutions.

The legislation will also—and I think this is important—establish a specialised unit, focused on gender based violence, in the Department of Education. Again, this unit will be designed to educate but also to enforce, and there will be public reporting, not only in this parliament—I hope to see it on a website, for example, which will be accessible to all Australians, because there's nothing like shining a spotlight on poor behaviour. So it will have a naming and shaming function.

I will conclude by saying that this has been a long time coming, and I pay tribute to the many, many activists and advocates over a long period of time—some, over 10 years—who have worked towards this outcome. It is through your advocacy, your voices, your hard work, blood, sweat and tears, that we have delivered this. I'm proud that it has been a Labor government—which, by the way, is female dominant, 56 per cent women, with cabinet agenda parity—that has listened and is now taking substantive action to address this problem. But, as with all types of cultural problems, it takes time. It's not just frameworks, legislative bodies, agencies and watchdogs that do it. It takes a whole-of-society effort to expunge this kind of behaviour.