The finance minister, Simon Birmingham, says he has spoken to the sex discrimination commissioner, Kate Jenkins, about an independent inquiry into parliamentary culture after a third woman alleged she was assaulted by the same staff member who is alleged to have raped Brittany Higgins.
The Australian reported on Monday that a third woman has alleged she was assaulted several years ago by the same person who is alleged to have assaulted Higgins in the office of then-defence industry minister Linda Reynolds in March 2019.
Scott Morrison said on Saturday he was “very upset” at reports a second woman was sexually assaulted by the same man who allegedly raped Higgins.
Birmingham said on Monday the allegations were weighing on him “very, very heavily”.
The finance minister said it was clear that workplace culture inside Parliament House needed to change. “Any workplace should be a safe workplace and the parliament should lead by example in terms of providing that safety,” Birmingham told the ABC.
Asked why the member of staff alleged to have assaulted Higgins was terminated for a security breach and “sent on his way”, Birmingham said Reynolds had assisted Higgins with making an initial police complaint.
But he said it was “distressing” that the young staffer did not feel as though she could proceed with that complaint without jeopardising her career.
Birmingham said a key focus of the review would be improving safety in the building, but also ensuring that any staff who found themselves in similar circumstances felt sufficiently supported to take any claim forward.
Birmingham said it was also important to examine what people should do if they had been informed of serious allegations, but victims chose not to pursue a police complaint.
“This is one of the significant tension points as to at what point the rights of individuals in making their decisions are respected versus the responsibility of others to try to pursue actions if they are not being pursued or undertaken by the individual,” Birmingham said.
The finance minister said he had spoken to Jenkins to seek her assistance, and he wanted to speak to staff representatives as well as Higgins. “I will welcome Brittany Higgins’ input – I will be reaching out there,” Birmingham said.
In the Senate on Monday morning, Labor’s Senate leader, Penny Wong, said the words of sympathy expressed by the prime minister over the weekend “ring hollow [while] there is no culture of accountability”.
“Mr Morrison talks about culture,” Wong said. “But what he is not talking about is the culture he leads, the culture he leads in his own government, where no matter what happens, he is never responsible”.
Wong said that when a Four Corners episode on the “Canberra bubble” raised serious concerns about the culture of mistreatment of women and his government, the government “tried to silence the ABC”.
“When women complained of bullying in his government, he said ‘I’m not going to be distracted by that’,” Wong said.
Green senator Larissa Waters told the Senate on Monday: “We need to systematically unpick the misogyny, the inequality, the privilege that creates a culture in which what happened to Brittany Higgins, to Rachelle Miller, to Chelsey Potter, to Dhanya Mani, and to so many others is downplayed as ‘just what happens in parliament’.”
“Yes, we need a comprehensive review of the compliance process, and an independent body so that no one feels as Brittany Higgins did, that making the complaint would end their career,” Waters said. “But we also need an enforceable code of conduct binding senators and members and senior staff to the highest standards of behaviour, and for there to be genuine consequences when we fail to meet those standards.”