A bipartisan group of political staff, including Brittany Higgins and Fiona Sugden – a former senior adviser to a number of Labor leaders – have written to Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese urging them to ensure that submissions to the looming Jenkins review are kept confidential.
According to the letter seen by Guardian Australia, the bipartisan group, who also include Lucy Turnbull and Thérèse Rein – the spouses of former prime ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Kevin Rudd – urges Morrison and Albanese to legislate to ensure that submissions to the review can’t be obtained under freedom of information legislation, or released under the Archives Act.
The letter reads: “As you have both said publicly, it is important that as many people as possible participate in the review.
“To do this, current and former staff must have confidence in the sex discrimination commissioner’s ability to ensure privacy for the participants in the immediate future and in the long term.
“As the Australian Human Rights Commission is subject to the Freedom of Information Act and the Archives Act there is currently no guarantee that information submitted will remain private as it would if the inquiry was conducted under parliamentary privilege.”
The government asked the sex discrimination commissioner, Kate Jenkins, to conduct a review of parliamentary workplace culture after Higgins – a former Liberal staffer – went public with an allegation that she was raped by a colleague in the ministerial office of their then employer Linda Reynolds in March 2019. That allegation is the subject of an ongoing police investigation and no charges have yet been laid.
Higgins’ decision to go public with her story has prompted other female political advisers, past and present, to consider coming forward with their own complaints. Former and current Labor staffers ventilated stories of sexual harassment and abuse while at work in a closed Facebook group at the weekend.
But the possibility that submissions to the Jenkins review could be made public has triggered concern in the ranks of parliamentary staff who want to take part in the process, but only the basis their observations remain confidential.
On Monday the shadow minister for women, Tanya Plibersek, implicitly acknowledged that concern among political staff. She said moves were under way to ensure that submissions would remain confidential.
Plibersek told Guardian Australia she had asked Jenkins to clarify how she would assure staff of confidentiality “given her organisation is subject to freedom of information and the Archives Act”.
Plibersek urged Labor women to come forward with complaints, and said it was important that the Jenkins inquiry be “well informed” by the lived experiences of parliamentary staff.
The new letter to Morrison and Albanese notes that there is precedent for information from similar reviews undertaken by the Australian Human Rights Commission becoming public, courtesy of a successful request under the FoI regime. It notes that in 2017, there was a successful FoI request for survey data conducted as part of a review into sexual assault and sexual harassment at universities.
“The sex discrimination commissioner herself has said the review should be victim centred and trauma informed,” the letter says.
“We are concerned that even if the names are redacted details of the submissions could still lead to the identification of victims – or the alleged perpetrators.”
It says political staff and others with relevant perspectives want to take part in the review “for the benefit of future staff of the parliament” – and this should be seen as an “altruistic act”.
“Legislative changes are required to address these issues this sitting fortnight.”
Jenkins, with multipartisan backing, has been asked to consider any legislative, cultural, structural or other barriers to reporting allegations in parliamentary workplaces, and to examine the current response and reporting mechanisms in parliamentary workplaces.
She will also consider the operation of the Members of Parliament Staff Act – the legislation under which political staffers are employed – and “assess the extent to which current legislation, policies, processes and practices promote or impede safe and respectful workplaces”.
After her appointment, Jenkins was asked whether there should be mandatory reporting of sexual assault allegations to police. The Australian federal police commissioner, Reece Kershaw, has urged parliamentarians to report any allegations to authorities promptly, “taking into account the rights and privacy of the victim, and irrespective of the jurisdiction in which the alleged conduct has occurred”.
In a letter to parliamentarians, Kershaw said any delay in reporting criminal conduct could “result in the loss of key evidence, continuation of the offending and/or reoffending by the alleged perpetrator” and also had “the very real potential to compromise the rights of victims and other parties to alleged offences”.
But Jenkins said approaches needed to be victim-centric. “It should be the individual’s decision,” she said.
