Australian politics is awash with allegations of sexual abuse
IT STARTED WHEN a former government employee, Brittany Higgins, said she had been raped in Australia’s parliament. She alleges that in 2019 a colleague brought her back to a minister’s office after a night out drinking. She passed out, she says, and regained consciousness to find that “all of a sudden he was on top of me”. Ms Higgins has quit her job and complained to the police. After she came forward last month, three other women said they had been sexually assaulted by the same man.Listen to this storyYour browser does not support the element.Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Android.Things got worse when an allegation was levelled at the attorney-general, Christian Porter. He is accused of raping a woman in 1988, when both of them were teenagers. She contacted the police last year, but took her own life before giving formal testimony, so the case was closed. Mr Porter strenuously denies the allegations. He is suing the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for defamation. It broke the story but did not name him; it was he who identified himself as the accused minister. The prime minister, Scott Morrison, is standing by his lawyer-in-chief, saying that if there is no evidence of a crime, then he should not face further questioning in parliament. The allegations have triggered outrage. On March 15th thousands of protesters congregated in cities across the country, demanding an end to sexual violence. In Sydney, where police tried to cap the rally at 1,500 people, more than six times as many thronged the city centre, chanting, “Enough is enough”. Among the crowd in Perth was the attorney-general’s ex-wife. “Parliament is still very much a boys’ club,” says Sarah Hanson-Young, a Green senator. Less than a third of MPs are women, putting Australia 50th in a global ranking of female representation. It ranked much more highly 20 years ago.The Liberal party, the bigger partner in the ruling coalition, is particularly laddish. Since the 1990s Labor, the main opposition, has used quotas to guarantee that women are selected to contest winnable seats. The Liberals have declined to follow suit, saying that every candidate must compete on his or her own merits. Less than a quarter of its MPs are women, compared with almost half of Labor’s. In 2011 Australia’s only female prime minister, Julia Gillard, accused the Liberals’ leader at the time, Tony Abbott, of misogyny after he gave a speech in front of banners calling her a “bitch” and a “witch”. (He says he hadn’t noticed the signs.)Fresh allegations are pouring forth on all sides. A Liberal senator received an email accusing a Labor MP of rape; it has been forwarded to the police. In a Facebook group, female Labor staffers are documenting cases of men aggressively propositioning or physically intimidating them. A Liberal MP, Nicolle Flint, told parliament that she had been harassed by Labor supporters. In the run-up to the previous election graffiti with the words “skank” and “prostitute” were scrawled on the wall of her campaign’s offices. Meanwhile Julie Bishop, the Liberals’ former deputy leader, says that a group of colleagues calling themselves “the big swinging dicks” tried to thwart her career. One reason that Canberra, the capital, is so lecherous, everyone seems to agree, is that it is a boozy bubble: few politicians live there with their families. Even by Aussie standards its drinking culture is notorious. Abusers have grown bold because they have rarely been taken to task. Moreover, “Australia views itself as a nation of larrikins”, or happy-go-lucky scamps, suggests Emma Dawson, a former Labor adviser. Those who complain about mistreatment are told it is part of the rough-and-tumble of politics. “You have to decide every day whether to call it out, or shut up and put up with it,” says Ms Hanson-Young. She sued a senator from a minor party for libel after he told her during a debate to “stop shagging men”.But women have become more willing to denounce abuses. “These men need to know that we will no longer keep their secrets,” warns the Labor group. Few are happy with the government’s handling of the recent allegations. Ms Higgins says she was made to feel like a “political problem” when she told the minister she worked for, Linda Reynolds, that she had been assaulted. Ms Reynolds has had to apologise for calling her a “lying cow”. The case has sparked an independent inquiry into the parliamentary culture. But Mr Morrison declined to come meet the protesters who had gathered outside parliament on March 15th. The organisers, he suggested, could come to him. ■This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Chambers of secrets”