'Culture of Abuse': Report Finds That 33% of Australian Parliament Workers Are Sexually Harassed, Afraid of Speaking Out

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MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - NOVEMBER 12: Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison is seen following the state funeral for Australian actor Bert Newton at St Patrick's Cathedral on November 12, 2021 in Melbourne, Australia. Bert Newtown died in his home on October 30, 2021, at age 83. Newton was an award-winning actor featuring in Australian film and television for over 60 years.

A third of Australian Parliament workers were found to have been victims of sexual harassment as a new report details a widespread culture of abuse in the country's highest governmental offices.

Australia's government commissioned a report that includes 456 pages and incorporates interviews and surveys of more than 1,000 participants. The people who were questioned were both current and former employees in Parliament.

Culture of Abuse

The report, titled "Set the Standard," alleged that female workers experienced a much higher rate of sexual harassment, bullying, and sexual assault than male staff. The report found that 40% of women were victims of sexual harassment compared to only 26% of men.

It was also found that more Parliament workers who identified as members of the LGBTQ+ community experienced some form of harassment compared to people who identified as heterosexual, with the numbers at 53% and 31%, respectively.

The report discovered that 63% of female Parliament workers were sexually harassed compared to only 24% of their male counterparts. The numbers revealed by the report are much higher when compared to the national average of women who have reported being sexually harassed, which was only 39%, NPR reported.

The documents also explored some of the root causes that resulted in the culture of sexual harassment in the Australian Parliament. It found that more than the workers who reported sexual harassment said the perpetrators were people who held higher positions than them.

Respondents also said that they did not believe that reporting sexual harassment and abuse incidents would have changed anything. The majority of the victims said it would only negatively impact their career and personal life. The report found that only 11% of people who experienced the crimes reported them.

"Some people described feeling that the only options were to tolerate the misconduct or leave, rather than expecting that the misconduct could be addressed," wrote the report, WWNO reported.

Sexual Harassment Cases

Australia's sex discrimination commissioner, Kate Jenkins, was responsible for the study and proposed a series of measures to address the authority and power imbalances in Parliament. The issues that the official plans to fix include gender inequality and lack of accountability. She said these made Parliament a hostile workplace for many staff members, specifically young female staff members.

In a statement, Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the report's findings "appalling," adding that he wished he found them more surprising. The official said that the Australian government would review the report's recommendations, including the creation of an independent central complaints body, a code of conduct, and alcohol policies. However, Morrison did not commit to accepting the recommendations.

For a long time, the Australian Parliament has had a reputation of being called a testosterone-fueled bunker. It was also known to have lagged behind the rest of society as corporations and other institutions across the nation made gradual moves toward gender equality. Australia has fallen from 15th to 50th in the world for parliamentary gender diversity in the last 20 years, the New York Times reported.