This article was written by a former staffer who spent 10 years working in the ministerial and electorate offices of federal MPs. She has requested anonymity and chosen to write the piece because “there just is nowhere else but the media where we can be heard”.
The fact that Brittany Higgins was allegedly raped in the Parliament of Australia should be irrelevant: sexual assault is abhorrent no matter where it occurs.
Many of us who work there know the mindset that guided those around her both when it happened and last week when they responded: this is a political problem; this needs to be managed.
Parliamentarians from across the political spectrum say they want a review of the culture in their workplace. This is a positive step, but unless all forms of bullying, intimidation and harassment in their offices are acknowledged, their good intentions will mean nothing.
It cannot be the case that a young woman being raped is the benchmark for behaviour we won’t accept.
Any review should start with the framework in which this — and other crimes — have been committed.
Parliamentary staff are employed under the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act 1984, or MOPS act. Similar legislation is in place at state and local government levels. It is a set of rules defined by the parliament, for the parliament. They make their own rules.
Ministerial and electorate offices are small, autonomous teams. Ministers have higher staff allocations and defined roles, but electorate offices are unregulated. There is no requirement for transparent recruitment or merit-based selection. The pathway from electorate officer to ministerial adviser is well trodden.
The act says staff are to work “under the sole direction of the employing senator or member” — so staffers have been employed to care for pets or family members, or run personal errands.
There are limits on political activities allowed in taxpayer-funded offices, but there is very little enforcement of those rules. In offices around the country you will find party operatives assigned to parliamentarians’ payrolls perpetually electioneering.
A staffer’s employment is tied to their boss’ success — if the boss loses their job through a reshuffle or an election so do the staff. Under the act if an MP decides a staffer is no longer required, a simple “restructure” removes them. The precariousness of our employment is always present.
There is limited scope for complaints about working conditions. There is no HR department or Fair Work Commission. These matters are dealt with by the member or senator — but being a good manager isn’t a prerequisite for election.
If your boss is the perpetrator of bullying, harassment or intimidation, a complaint could lose you your job. If your problem is with a fellow staffer, there’s a chance your boss lacks the skills, or the desire, to resolve your complaint. For many staffers, the only choice is to put up with it or leave.
Complaining to the party is even less effective. Its priority is always reelection, and it will protect reputations at all cost. Its influence over the selection of staffers creates an almost protected species, no matter how problematic the employee is. Those who speak out are seen as traitors. Silence is always the preferred option.
Parliament is a place where a select few hold enormous power — not just over public policy but over their own personal workforce. Combative behaviour is not just tolerated, it’s celebrated. Like many institutions of power it attracts those who want to exploit it.
Not all politicians are bad leaders and not all staffers are ambitious and ruthless — but if they are they can flourish here.
This is the environment Higgins worked in. Chelsey Potter and Dhanya Mani, who say they were sexually assaulted by their staffer colleagues, worked in it too. So did Rachelle Miller, who says she was bullied and harassed after ending a consensual affair with a minister.
Emma Husar was an MP when she was accused of sexually explicit behaviour in a parliamentary office, even though she said it never happened. This is undoubtedly a place where women are degraded.
But as we process these horrific experiences, let’s not risk the opportunity to take a broader view.
Female MPs and staffers are able to abuse power just as easily as their male colleagues.
And this isn’t just a problem in one political party; those who suggest it is are lying.
There are fundamental and widespread problems with the professional standards of our parliament and it starts with the way each and every parliamentary office functions. The current settings don’t work. Rules are scant, regulation non-existent, and politicians manage their own teams regardless of their ability to do so.
This is where the culture has bred, in which these crimes took place. These are not the modern Australian workplaces we expect them to be.
If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault or violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au.
Clearly Higgins was not an isolated incident and the entire structure of the Federal Government, its reporting lines, ethical conduct and oversight is completely lacking. This extends not only to Ministerial and Staffer conduct but to Ministerial Support and Portfolio responsibilities. There is simply no public oversight of the Ministers, Staffers and CPS as a whole. There is extreme wastage , corruption and appalling behaviour across the board at all levels. Clearly the culture needs a clean out. If a company with shareholders ran like this, it would not last long.
We already knew that fomr the way it handles its core business–governing.
This points to the structural issues which don’t condemn said behaviour, and in fact build it into the system.
How many from either political persuasion come via single sex private schools, onwards through ratbag boy’s cultures at universities perpetuated through their ‘societies’, on to a non-competitive selection into an electoral office, acquired through connections and old school tie humbug, never pulled aside and told how a man should treat a woman (just like they’re human beings, imagine that!)
In Sydney at least, and I’m sure in parts of Melbourne, some of the worst people come out of these cultural enclaves and straight into politics, or high paying gigs in the corporate sector. Then there’s the bunyip aristocracy filling up the National Party, with, erm, talent.
Some DB; it is not complete just yet.
However, if probity is no longer a consideration for Ministerial conduct then we find ourselves adopting the morality of Nixon (hardly alone) : “Can we deny it”?
Sense of entitlement and elitism, no less. That’s what their parents pay all that money to have instilled into their little darlings.
I’ll never forget that 4Corners footage of a pack of private school boys openly chanting sexual assault lyrics at full volume, in a public tram, in their school uniform. Because they could.
Well, they’ve been doing it for centuries and it’s served them very, very well. Clearly complaining from an ethical standpoint is a waste of breath. I solemnly predict that people will wince apathetically and do nothing.
The offices of our elected leaders should be exemplary examples of well managed, inclusive and supportive workplaces.
They should not look like small business at its worst with the scope to treat employees with disdain and the capability to hire and fire at will.
How can politicians expect us to trust them to run the country (or state) if they don’t have the management skills to run an office without consuming staff?
An excellent article. Thankyou for taking the time to write it.
You hit the nail on the head, I think, in showing us (a) what the problem is and (b) illuminating a pathway to how it might be improved as a minimum.. I am rather over the media hysteria implying that all of this is the incumbent governing parties leader’s fault. I clearly recall similar behavior issues reported in the press during the last labor power years.
Surely it is not beyond the witt of man to have a group of 2 women and 2 men drawn from across all of our parliamentary representatives to sit with a couple of seniors from the public service and map out a way that offers better pathways to manage all of the employment issues of this nature that arise. Major multi nationals have done it and I am reluctant to believe it cannot be achieved in Canberra.
So please; stop the virtue signalling editorial writing by the other journo’s and start to push for appropriate action in the way these employees are engaged and managed regardless of whose office they are located in and which political party is in power. Anyone who thinks this is only a liberal party problem is living with their head in a box.
Sexual assault is a ‘behavioral issue’?
There are serious questions to be raised about the recruitment criteria to the Liberal Party, including the whole gamut of preselected MPs as well as staffers. Too many appear to show the worst qualities of a human being and others are the young pretty women who are there as fodder.