ABC News: Nick Haggarty
)Victims of sexual assault in Parliament House will now be able to access case files handed to an internal inquiry, after the government agreed to amend a new law.
Last week in the Senate the government passed exemptions to the Archives and Other Legislation Amendment Bill.
Those exemptions would have stopped anything handed from ministers' offices and departments to an inquiry on sexual assault and harassment from being made publicly available via Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.
The inquiry, to be run by Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins, was proposed after several allegations of toxic behaviour towards women surfaced in Parliament House.
The House of Representatives passed an amendment on Thursday making it clear the exemptions will only apply to documents or submissions that are created specifically for the inquiry, so that staff who do not want to be publicly identified still feel comfortable coming forward.
Earlier this week, independent MP Zali Steggall warned that changes to privacy rules could see victims who took part in the Jenkins inquiry lose access to certain documents.
Brittany Higgins, who alleges she was raped by a colleague in a minister's office in 2019, told the ABC she was concerned the additional clause would mean previous documents from her case, such as CCTV from outside the office, or a cleaners' report the morning after her alleged assault, would no longer be available to her.
AAP: David Moir
)Ms Steggall proposed the amendment to the bill, which was then worked on by members from the government, the opposition and crossbenchers. It will need to go back to the Senate before being enacted.
Confidence review will be robust, fair
Ms Steggall told the ABC she welcomed the amendment.
"I am confident the independent review will be a robust, thorough and fair process. Particular thanks to Minister [Simon] Birmingham who has been collaborative with me in this process."
The Sex Discrimination Commissioner told Senate estimates it was crucial to limit the number of people who could access the confidential information provided to her inquiry.
"The collection of the stories absolutely gives us a picture of systemic issues," Ms Jenkins said.
"It is very much our normal practice … where we have people who come to us [and] tell us their stories confidentially, [that they] have complete control over what and how they provide that. And we will use that only in a de-identified manner."
