Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to resume my remarks. As I was outlining to the chamber, this bill is a missed opportunity to seriously address the appalling rates of sexual assault on university campuses and in residential halls. We know from a 2021 study that every week, across the country, 275 students are reporting sexual assault on campus. This is an epidemic.

This is not the first time those horrific statistics have been highlighted. Back in 2017 the Sex Discrimination Commissioner did a whole report, the Change the course report, about the hideous rape factories that are happening on our university campuses. Sadly, it was largely ignored by the university sector. We then had the inquiry into consent laws and whether or not we should harmonise those around the nation—which is something I'd like to see—which was also an opportunity to shine a light on these appalling statistics and the lack of safety for students on campus. With all that pressure, and thanks to the tireless advocacy of End Rape on Campus, Fair Agenda and The STOP Campaign, the pressure has built such that we saw the education ministers say earlier this month that they are thinking about establishing a national independent student ombudsman. Those advocates I just mentioned have been calling for a task force to hold universities to account on sexual violence.

We hear from the government they're now considering an ombudsman. Whatever you call it, whether it's a task force or an ombudsman, it's got to have four key attributes in order to be successful, to actually improve student safety. The first attribute is that it must be independent and it must be expert led. It must have oversight of whether the universities and the residential hall policies and practices are actually meeting basic standards. Independence and expert oversight is the first facet that any ombudsman or task force must have for it to seriously tackle the real problem of rape on campus. The second attribute is that it must be transparent. We must have transparency around which institutions are providing appropriate and effective responses and prevention initiatives, and we do not have that at the moment. The third attribute that any such body must have to be a legitimate and purposeful body is an effective complaints avenue. Students need to have a complaints avenue they can have confidence in so that, when they raise issues of students or survivors or other stakeholders, those complaints are properly addressed and that the process can be trusted to lead to a justice outcome. The fourth attribute is that we need meaningful accountabilities both for universities and residential halls when basic standards are not being met.

Immediate action is needed to address the gaping hole that exists for students who have been harmed and failed, and so deeply let down, by their institutions. They currently have nowhere to even make a complaint or to have a complaint investigated by anyone with relevant expertise in the area. An expert led complaints system is a good and very necessary first step, but we also need to see a systemic response from government that delivers oversight, monitoring, transparency and accountability for both universities and university residences.

During the recent consent laws inquiry we heard horror stories not just of student trauma from the sexual assault they'd experienced on campus but of the compounding of that trauma by the universities' bungling of the treatment of those allegations. Some students said that the way they were treated by their institution caused more damage to them than the sexual assault in the first place, which was just so hard to hear and is utterly unacceptable.

We also heard during the course of that inquiry that Universities Australia had received taxpayer dollars to design—in cohort with students—a prevention campaign to tackle sexual violence. We heard that they unilaterally pulled the student-agreed version of that campaign, sanitised it such that it was going to be completely ineffective, and turned it into something completely different which replicated a resource that already existed anyway. So not only are universities bungling prevention but we heard time and time again that they are also bungling response. It is absolutely clear that universities are protecting their brand and not protecting students. It's also abundantly clear that both Universities Australia and TEQSA, which is meant to be the regulatory body, have not been up to the task of responding to sexual assault on university campuses or residential halls. We urgently need a review into TEQSA, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency. We need a review into their response to sexual violence on uni campuses. I note that that was one of the recommendations of that consent laws inquiry, which was a unanimous, consensus and much-needed recommendation.

A member of Fair Agenda has asked me to read their testimony into Hansard, and I endorse and echo their call to action. They have said:

Sexual safety for all genders at universities is paramount to learning. There's enough stress to 'achieve' without feeling preyed upon by others in that environment. Having been stalked at university in the 1970s, I know first-hand the anxiety and stress this causes. Fifty years and more is more than long enough for all universities to have eradicated such shameful predatory practices … on campus, including other students, lecturers, administration and every one associated with these institutions. Wake up! The responsibility for cleaning up campuses rests on the shoulders of the universities' Vice Chancellors. No excuses! Act now! Anyone found guilty of sexual misconduct should be immediately dismissed: it's that simple.

We heard some even more horrific testimonies in the course of the sexual consent laws inquiry, so we know that there is an incredibly damaging and enormous epidemic of sexual violence on campus. This bill could have been the opportunity to help redress that, so we are keeping the pressure up on the minister and echoing those calls from groups to please take this issue seriously. Whether it's a taskforce or an ombudsman—we don't care what you call it—it has to be an effective body to tackle these issues, which have been sidelined, ignored and swept under the carpet for far too long.

Universities have ignored sexual violence on campus for too long and they must be compelled to take meaningful action, because they're certainly not doing it voluntarily. That action has to not only address violence and support for victims-survivors but also properly prevent sexual violence on campus. We are again, in our support of this bill, urging the government not to miss yet another opportunity to keep students safe from sexual assault.