{"id":981106,"date":"2022-02-08T08:57:39","date_gmt":"2022-02-08T08:57:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/02\/08\/australia-pm-apologises-for-abuse-bullying-in-parliament\/"},"modified":"2022-02-08T08:57:39","modified_gmt":"2022-02-08T08:57:39","slug":"australia-pm-apologises-for-abuse-bullying-in-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/02\/08\/australia-pm-apologises-for-abuse-bullying-in-parliament\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia PM apologises for abuse, bullying in parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Australia – Australia’s prime minister apologised for widespread sexual harassment, abuse and bullying of political staff Tuesday, a year after a high-profile rape allegation rocked the country’s parliament.<\/p>\n

Addressing lawmakers, Scott Morrison apologised directly to former staffer Brittany Higgins who said she was raped by a male colleague in a minister’s office in 2019.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“I’m sorry to Ms Higgins for the terrible things that took place here,” Morrison said describing a decades-long culture of abuse in the corridors of power.<\/p>\n

“But I am sorry for far more than that — for all of those who came before Ms Higgins and endured the same.”<\/p>\n

“Over many decades, an ecosystem, a culture, was perpetuated where bullying, abuse, harassment, and in some cases even violence, became normalised,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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MORE ON THIS<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Higgins went public in January last year, sparking nationwide protests.<\/p>\n

Australians were shocked by the alleged abuse she experienced, but also the way she was treated when she told her bosses.<\/p>\n

She said she felt pressured not to go to the police ahead of the 2019 election and described a “culture of silence” in Australian political parties.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In the wake of Higgins’ allegations, and those of other staffers who came forward after her, the government launched multiple inquiries.<\/p>\n

One of those, the 450-page Jenkins Review, found that one-in-three people currently working in Commonwealth workplaces have experienced sexual harassment while working there.<\/p>\n

In his speech, Morrison said: “This has to change. It is changing. And I believe it will change.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Opposition leader Anthony Albanese also offered an apology to Higgins from his Labor party.<\/p>\n

“You have torn through a silence that has acted as the life support system for the most odious of status quos,” he said.<\/p>\n

Listening from the public gallery, Higgins became visibly emotional during the speeches.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She sat between three fellow former staffers who have gone public with their own allegations, and two women’s rights advocates.<\/p>\n

The women were asked to attend the formal acknowledgement after they tweeted the night before about not being invited.<\/p>\n

Higgins will speak Wednesday at the National Press Club alongside sexual abuse survivor Grace Tame, who was the 2021 Australian of the Year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Tame dismissed the prime minister\u2019s apology. “How about some proactive, preventative measures and not just these performative, last-minute bandaid electioneering stunts?\u201d she tweeted Tuesday.<\/p>\n

AFP<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia – Australia’s prime minister apologised for widespread sexual harassment, abuse and bullying of political staff Tuesday, a year after a high-profile rape allegation rocked the country’s parliament. Addressing lawmakers, Scott Morrison apologised directly to former staffer Brittany Higgins who said she was raped by a male colleague in a minister’s office in 2019. “I’m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":981107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-981106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=981106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=981106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=981106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=981106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}