Rape claims linked to Australian parliament widen as new case comes to light
- Days after a former government adviser was accused to have raped a female colleague, a report on a second assault has emerged
- PM Scott Morrison said he was extremely distressed by the second report, adding that a lot of work had to be done to change the workplace culture
.png?itok=arIb17P0)
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he was extremely distressed by a report of the alleged assault on the second woman, adding that a lot of work had to be done to change the workplace culture.
Morrison welcomed a decision by the first woman, former adviser Brittany Higgins, to now make a formal complaint with the Australian Federal Police about her alleged rape in the building in 2019.
Australian PM apologises for handling of parliament rape allegation
The case involving the second woman, a former staffer in Morrison’s Liberal Party, was not in Parliament House, according to The Australian newspaper.
Higgins’ allegations came after former lawmakers from the Liberal Party complained about workplace bullying in Parliament.
In 2018, former Foreign Minister Julie Bishop blasted behaviour in Parliament that would not be “tolerated in any other workplaces across Australia”, while former lawmaker Julia Banks said bullying had driven her to decide to quit the legislative body.
Critics have demanded an overhaul of what has been called a toxic and sexist culture in Canberra politics, after Higgins earlier this week alleged she was sexually assaulted by a male colleague two years ago.
The 26-year-old has said she was treated like a “political problem” when she reported the incident in now-Defence Minister Linda Reynolds’ office and the case was badly mismanaged.
Higgins on Wednesday said the government had now publicised key elements of the alleged attack that had not been shared with her previously.
The government has questions to answer for their own conduct
“The continued victim-blaming rhetoric by the prime minister is personally very distressing to me and countless other survivors,” she said in a statement to local media. “The government has questions to answer for their own conduct.”
The prime minister initially defended his government’s approach to the case before apologising, but on Wednesday faced further questions about what he knew and when.
“I’m not happy about the fact that it was not brought to my attention, and I can assure you people know that,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra.
But it had emerged that staffer who handled Higgins’ initial complaint now works in Morrison’s office.
And Higgins has told local media that a “fixer” for Morrison called her to “check in” late last year when other women accused two male ministers of sexism and bullying.
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull – also a member of the conservative Liberal Party – declared it “inconceivable” that the case was not discussed at high levels.
“I find it incredible. That’s to say very, very, very hard to believe that the Prime Minister’s office would not have been aware of that incident as soon as it occurred,” he told public broadcaster ABC. “I mean, if they weren’t, it was a complete failure of the system.”
The opposition Labor party is ratcheting up the pressure on the government, suggesting Reynolds should resign for her failings.
“If I was the prime minister and these events had occurred and a minister in my cabinet had kept any information from me or my office, then they wouldn’t be still maintaining that position,” leader Anthony Albanese told Sky News.
