Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Set the standard report found that one in three parliamentary staffers in this building had experienced some form of sexual harassment, as had many female parliamentarians. This is unacceptable. Everyone has the right to a safe workplace, whether that's in Parliament House or anywhere else. According to the Australian Human Rights Commission, more than 40 per cent of women and 26 per cent of men have experienced workplace sexual harassment, and one in five women and one in 16 men have experienced sexual violence.

Sexual assault is underreported, and convictions are very rare. We know that an alarming number of people still disbelieve or victim-blame survivors of sexual violence. Partially because of this, almost nine in 10 incidents of sexual assault nationally are not reported to police, and those who do decide to take their perpetrators to court describe the process as horrific and retraumatising. We've seen high-profile cases like Brittany's, Saxon Mullins's, Grace Tame's and countless others play out repeatedly with intense media coverage, and we know the devastating impact that those proceedings can cause all victims-survivors. Women watching the media coverage of those cases are left feeling like they can't come forward, that their experiences may be weaponised or that the contents of their personal text messages might be splashed across the front pages. I salute the strength of anyone who seeks justice through the courts for sexual violence, as it's often re-traumatising and horrific for all survivors of gendered violence.

When Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame appeared at the Press Club in 2022, they asked for three things from parliament: to take abuse in all its forms seriously, to invest in prevention education and for structural change. Those are things that women have been demanding for years, yet progress remains painstakingly slow, and, in some cases, it feels like we're going backwards. It should go without saying that everyone deserves to be free from harassment, bullying and sexual assault. It's a tragedy that it takes the sacrifices and the public re-traumatisation of brave women to wake many people up. This is still unfinished business for staff safety in this building, and the Greens will continue to champion it.