Today Parliament will deliver a formal apology to victims of alleged sexual assault and bullying in the building, but a few important names were originally left off the invite list: namely Brittany Higgins, Rachelle Miller and the other former Liberal staffers who allege they were sexually assaulted in Parliament.
Higgins revealed to news.com.au last night that she “hasn’t been invited” to the formal apology to victims — strange, given the former Liberal staffer played a pivotal role in sparking the Jenkins review of parliamentary culture in 2021 that called for the apology to occur.
It’s coming up to one year since Higgins’ decision to go public with allegations that she was raped by a colleague in Parliament House in 2019. She is in Canberra this week to deliver an address to the National Press Club alongside former Australian of the Year Grace Tame.
After news.com.au reported on Higgins’ missing invitation on Monday night, Parliament moved to ensure that she could attend (apparently COVID rules means former staffers cannot enter the building) but no word yet if the other women who alleged they were also assaulted, harassed, or bullied in Parliament House will be invited.
Among these former staffers is Miller, Education Minister Alan Tudge’s former lover, who alleges her relationship with Tudge was abusive, emotionally and once physically (allegations Tudge denies).
Miller took to Twitter last night to note her lack of invite (and throw a well-placed barb).
Miller confirmed on RN Breakfast today that she has since been invited after Independent Zali Steggall offered one of her six invites to her. As we wrote in Crikey yesterday, women have long been ignored on both sides of politics, but now they are are increasingly happy to speak up and speak out.
Deliberate snub or is COVID really the reason? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name if you would like to be considered for publication in Crikey’s Your Say column. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
Genuine question, could the reason Brittany was not invited to a function about victims is that she is currently before the courts trying to prove that she is a victim?
Regardless of the court case, she is a major figure in the whole saga.
Yes, guilty, innocent…’regardless’, heck, I’m sure Bruce Lehrmann won’t mind spending the next four months wondering if he’s going to spend the next decade or so after that in prison. Whatevs!
His rape trial is scheduled to start on 6 June. As if any #MeToo cultists ‘actually’ care less.
Would have been a logical one to run past Jen.
Despite everything. I assume the PMs minders and advisors would have spoken up and said you cant leave them out. Yet somehow they did. Amazing new lows.
Is anyone surprised? He/they STILL do not get it!
Realistically, how good is this “sorry” bullshirt?
It would seem to me that sprouting the word “sorry” just to get a photo opp. or getting the media off ones back, is total public performance.
ESPECIALLY when it’s done by some spokesperson. It would have some weight if the culprit says the “sorry”, but not if it’s not sincere.
How often do you find yourself thinking, “yeah! they really look “sorry”, especially those who can squeeze out a tear with it. Some perhaps are really “sorry”. However with lies being apparently compulsory these days I’d say most “sorry” are about being caught, or having said it out loud rather than sorry for the victim.
The media’s fixation about getting a “sorry” for something is just trying to get a “gotya” moment and some circus, not about any genuine regret.
It is literally the first formal Recommendation of the Jenkins Report:
‘ Recommendation 1:
Statement of Acknowledgement
The Presiding Officers should convene party leaders and the heads of the parliamentary departments to come together, agree and deliver a joint Statement of Acknowledgement to the Parliament. This Statement should acknowledge the harm caused
by bullying, sexual harassment, and sexual assault in Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces and a commitment to action and shared accountability.’
Page 158. Go and read it. It’s not Morrison’s doing, it’s the AHRC’s, as collectively enacted by the entire Parliament.
It’s long been obvious that #MeToo has always been about partisan politics, but you should at least try to maintain a vaguely noble, good faith pretence to your moral sanctitude.
Rather than ‘sanctitude‘ is not the more appropriate word sanctimony?
oops, quite.
Yesterday’s events were directly and very literally responding to the first formal Recommendation of the Jenkins Report. A multi-partisan Parliamentary acknowledgement of everything that apparently makes it so ‘horrific’ for women to work in our Parliament. #MeToo has been disproportionately obsessing over this supposedly dystopian nightmare of a workplace since Louise Milligan’s Inside the Bubble story on 4Corners.
I wish all vulnerable and victimised cohorts in the workforce of Parliament House a less viciously brutalising workplace going forward.
Those of us however with an interest in DV and sexual crime issues affecting cohorts other than these well-educated, well-paid, privileged, predominantly white media-political-information class workers, whose tragic and catastrophically traumatising experiences have alas sucked all the attention away from other gendered violence crises long underway, are very much hoping some focus and perspective will now return to wider discussions on these issues. Perhaps once the Tame-Higgins rock star/groupie love-in at the NPC today is put to bed the policy and. legal process grown-ups will finally get a look-in again.
Gotta lurve the gal-pal promo. pic for Wed’s Big Speech at the NPC.
One of you better contributions