Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families and Payments) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Australian Human Rights Commission Change the course on sexual assault and sexual harassment at Australian universities. This landmark report and nationwide survey found that more than half of university students were sexually harassed last year. Every young person has the right to further their education and every student has the right to access that education free from the threat or fear of sexual violence.

As my colleagues, the Shadow Minister for Education and Women, Tanya Plibersek, and the Shadow Assistant Minister for Universities, Terri Butler, said, this report contains disturbing findings and demands urgent action. The survey was the first of its kind and the first look at in detail the extent and nature of this problem in Australia. As well as the national survey, the commission also accepted written submissions and it is telling that nearly 2,000 submissions were received. We should be very clear about this report. Sexual violence is a crime and should be reported to police. And sexual harassment is never okay.

Last year the University of Tasmania partnered with 38 other Australian universities to conduct the national survey of student experiences of sexual assault, threats and harassment. It was a vital step to understanding the welfare and safety of students, including international students, LBGTI students and students with a disability. The survey was funded by Universities Australia, with seed funding provided by The Hunting Ground Australia Project.

The results of the Change the course based on the national survey were staggering. One in every two students surveyed were sexually harassed on at least one occasion in 2016, and 6.9 per cent of students surveyed were sexually assaulted on at least one occasion in 2015 or 2016. And most sexual harassment occurred on public transport either to or from university campus. It was particularly troubling that the report found women were twice as likely to be the victim of sexual violence, and trans and gender diverse students were at greater risk of sexual harassment.

These statistics are concerning as they are, but they do not include the dark figure of sex crimes. The dark figure represents the unknown number of sexual assaults that are not registered in the statistics due to the prevalence of underreporting. We know that few of these crimes are reported and even fewer proceed through the criminal justice system. The report identified four key contributing factors common to many Australian universities: underlying attitudes towards women, alcohol consumption on campus, university staff abusing their power over students and the culture of on-campus residential settings, where there is easy access to bedrooms and places to commit sexual assault and sexual harassment.

The commission made nine recommendations. These included: ensuring each university vice-chancellor has carriage of implementing campus reforms; developing and delivering a plan to address the drivers of sexual violence, tailored for staff and students; raising awareness about support services available to students by making information accessible and developing relationships with external community services; recommending that each university commission a review into their existing policies for responding to sexual assault and sexual harassment, with particular consideration given to how each university can accommodate the needs of students from diverse backgrounds; ensuring staff receive adequate training in responding to student complaints and disclosures; and conducting an audit of university counselling services within six months.

When the report was launched, the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins, said the results of the survey and the reports were confronting. She said:

We received numerous accounts of women being sexually assaulted by people they described as 'close friends', who they trusted.

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Sadly, the impacts of these experiences can be life changing: affecting health, studies and future careers.

Ms Jenkins believes that university staff must do more. She said:

The Commission heard about the barriers people face to reporting sexual assault and sexual harassment. One of the most common reasons for not reporting was that people did not know where or who to report to.

It is clear that universities must do more to publicise their reporting processes.

The vice-chancellor of the Australian National University, Professor Brian Schmidt, has been outspoken on these issues since he was appointed in 2016. Professor Schmidt said:

The survey results are really utterly shocking. They show that we have a problem here across our sector, that people are being sexually harassed and sexually assaulted at a rate that I think people are going to find hard to accept.

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I believe everyone should be safe from inter-personal violence, sexual harassment and assault.

I believe harassment and assault are the fault of the person using violence, not the person subjected to the violence.

The findings of the survey were not surprising to Freya Willis, an ANU law student who was raped by a fellow university student at a club and societies event. Freya knows that more needs to be done to ensure change occurs:

These results are really confirmation of what students and activists have been talking about for years, but I guess, it's useful for us to have this on paper finally.

Sexual violence has no place in our society. The report shows that in my home state of Tasmania students are being sexually harassed above the national rate. Ninety-two per cent of Tasmanian students surveyed reported not seeking support or assistance from the University of Tasmania after they were sexually harassed. Sixty per cent of Tasmanian students admitted they either had no knowledge or very little knowledge of where to go within the university to make a complaint about sexual harassment.

I was pleased last Thursday to join my colleague the federal member for Franklin, Julie Collins MP, and the women's collective at the University of Tasmania to launch a petition calling on the university to respond to sexual violence and harassment on campus. The petition, which forms part of the national campaign headed by Young Labor, calls for a standard framework for reporting incidents. The petition also calls for an on-campus counselling service which specialises in sexual harassment and assault. At the launch of the petition, Young Labor women's officer and UTAS Women's Collective member Heidi La Paglia said that 'We know from the data that an astounding number of students experience harassment or violence, but the majority still don't know what the university can do to support them. Implementing a standard reporting system and a counselling service is a bare minimum requirement.'

Sapphire Grant, the president of the UTAS Women's Collective, summed it up when she said that the university had been too slow to respond to the reality of sexual harassment and violence on campus. Ms Grant said: 'We need fast responses which tell us they believe us, that it is not our fault and that we will have justice. What we need is to have more trauma-informed staff so that, when people do disclose, they are told, "I believe you. It's not your fault."'

I admire Laura Nilssen who, at the launch of the petition, spoke about her experience since being sexually assaulted in her first year at UTAS. It was pleasing that, on the day the Australian Human Rights Commission report was released, UTAS vice-chancellor, Professor Peter Rathjen, announced the university's dean of law, Professor Margaret Otlowski, would take up the new role of pro vice-chancellor of culture and wellbeing. As she said: 'one assault, one incident of harassment is one too many'. Indeed, it is, and we must all work to put an end to sexual assault and sexual harassment.