The Australian government is providing financial assistance to victims end relationships with violent partners.

Both cash and direct payments including expenses such as school fees are included in this one-off payment of $3700.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/gravitas-australia-pays-citizens-to-leave-abusive-partners-422471/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

The aid comes as a reprieve for all genders who are suffering due to being in a relationship with a partner who beats them.

Appreciating the effort, Minister of Women Marise Payne said ''everyone has a basic right to safety, equality and respect in our society.''

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/the-most-unsafe-workplace-parliament-australian-women-say-375759">Also read |&nbsp;‘The most unsafe workplace’? Parliament, Australian women say</a>

Critics said the gesture does not address the root cause of domestic violence in the country.

Family violence has become&nbsp;&nbsp;''distrubingly common'' in Australia according to a charity called Mission Australia.

The Australian Bureau os Statistics had published a report in June showing a 13 per cent surge in domestic violence-related cases recorded by police in 2020 during the lockdown period.

It also said that approximately 2.2 million people in the country have experienced physical or sexual abuse by their partners.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/australian-govt-takes-up-legal-battle-against-indian-origin-teens-climate-change-court-case-422014">Also read |&nbsp;Australian govt takes up legal battle against Indian-origin teen’s climate change court case</a>

According to a shocking study conducted by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, a woman is killed by her partner once in every nine days.

''We discovered that there was not only an increase in the severity of domestic violence as well as its prevalence, but we also discovered, much to our surprise and shock, that perpetrators have been using COVID lockdowns to actually extend their coercive control over their partners, '' said co-author and&nbsp;professor Kerry Carrington

''The financial, the psychological, the mental pressures of COVID, being locked down in the home with children has really exacerbated the prevalence of domestic violence.''

Australia is also hosting a national summit for women's safety to discuss the sexual violence, financial security, and the challenges faced by the diverse community members of the country.

The Australian government is providing financial assistance to victims end relationships with violent partners. Both cash and direct payments including expenses such as school fees are included in this one-off payment of $3700.

The Australian government is providing financial assistance to victims end relationships with violent partners. Both cash and direct payments including expenses such as school fees are included in this one-off payment of $3700. The aid comes as a reprieve for all genders who are suffering due to being in a relationship with a partner who beats them. Appreciating the effort, Minister of Women Marise Payne said ''everyone has a basic right to safety, equality and respect in our society.'' Also read | ‘The most unsafe workplace’? Parliament, Australian women say Critics said the gesture does not address the root cause of domestic violence in the country. Family violence has become ''distrubingly common'' in Australia according to a charity called Mission Australia. The Australian Bureau os Statistics had published a report in June showing a 13 per cent surge in domestic violence-related cases recorded by police in 2020 during the lockdown period. It also said that approximately 2.2 million people in the country have experienced physical or sexual abuse by their partners. Also read | Australian govt takes up legal battle against Indian-origin teen’s climate change court case According to a shocking study conducted by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, a woman is killed by her partner once in every nine days. ''We discovered that there was not only an increase in the severity of domestic violence as well as its prevalence, but we also discovered, much to our surprise and shock, that perpetrators have been using COVID lockdowns to actually extend their coercive control over their partners, '' said co-author and professor Kerry Carrington ''The financial, the psychological, the mental pressures of COVID, being locked down in the home with children has really exacerbated the prevalence of domestic violence.'' Australia is also hosting a national summit for women's safety to discuss the sexual violence, financial security, and the challenges faced by the diverse community members of the country.

Australian government offering financial aid to victims to seperate from violent partners

Australian politicians will no longer be exempt from rules against sexual harassment at work, the conservative government announced on Thursday as it tries to quell public anger over parliamentary sex abuse scandals.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his government would overhaul the country's sexual discrimination laws&nbsp;to make members of parliament, judges and public servants accountable for harassing colleagues in the workplace.

"It's about getting everyone on as&nbsp;much of a playing field as possible," he told reporters in Canberra.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/australian-pm-apologises-to-women-who-alleged-rape-in-parliament-364056/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

MPs, judges and public servants are currently exempt from anti-harassment rules that apply to other Australian workplaces, though they can still face criminal prosecution for sexual assault.

The move was in response to a "Respect@Work" report,&nbsp;handed down more than a year ago following a national inquiry into sexual harassment,&nbsp;and comes just weeks after sexual abuse allegations rocked Australia's halls of power.

Also see|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/women-in-australia-march-against-sexual-violence-and-injustice-370549">Women in Australia march against sexual violence and injustice</a>

A young ex-staffer in Morrison's Liberal Party recently went public with allegations she was raped by a colleague in parliament in 2019, while a senior minister was forced to deny raping a 16-year-old when they were both students in the 1980s.

Critics said the cases, and the government's apparent initial reluctance to act, have highlighted a "toxic" and sexist culture in Australia's parliament.

Attorney-General Michaelia Cash, who last week replaced the rape-accused minister in the government's top legal role,&nbsp;said other proposed legislative changes would include classifying sexual harassment at work as "serious misconduct" and making it valid grounds for dismissal.

The government also plans to extend the period in which a victim can report an incident from six months to two years, she added.

Nationwide protests

The Respect@Work report was drawn up by the government's own sex discrimination commissioner, Kate Jenkins, and Morrison has been under growing criticism for failing to act on its 55 recommendations since it was first submitted in January 2020.

The prime minister rejected the criticism on Thursday, saying his government had already committed to funding several recommendations it felt were high priority.

"Last year, we were&nbsp;very focused on those very urgent&nbsp;needs to protect women at a time&nbsp;when they were very vulnerable&nbsp;during Covid," he said.

"We put the additional&nbsp;resources in and now we're in a&nbsp;position to address these&nbsp;more systemic and longer-term issues&nbsp;which are very important and I'm&nbsp;pleased we're able to do that today."

The rape allegations sparked nationwide protests, with tens of thousands of women taking to the streets to call for gender equality and an end to sexual violence.

In recent weeks, Morrison's coalition government has been rocked by a litany of new sexual abuse and harassment complaints -- from a staff member photographed masturbating on a female politician's desk, to a state MP being accused of raping a sex worker, to another lawmaker apologising for harassing women online.

A media blitz aimed at showing Morrison's empathy with women has only added to the furore through a series of missteps, and he eventually demoted two top ministers in an attempt to draw a line under the scandals.

(With inputs from agencies)

Australian politicians will no longer be exempt from rules against sexual harassment at work, the conservative government announced on Thursday as it tries to quell public anger over parliamentary sex abuse scandals.

Australian politicians will no longer be exempt from rules against sexual harassment at work, the conservative government announced on Thursday as it tries to quell public anger over parliamentary sex abuse scandals. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his government would overhaul the country's sexual discrimination laws to make members of parliament, judges and public servants accountable for harassing colleagues in the workplace. "It's about getting everyone on as much of a playing field as possible," he told reporters in Canberra. MPs, judges and public servants are currently exempt from anti-harassment rules that apply to other Australian workplaces, though they can still face criminal prosecution for sexual assault. The move was in response to a "Respect@Work" report, handed down more than a year ago following a national inquiry into sexual harassment, and comes just weeks after sexual abuse allegations rocked Australia's halls of power. Also see| Women in Australia march against sexual violence and injustice A young ex-staffer in Morrison's Liberal Party recently went public with allegations she was raped by a colleague in parliament in 2019, while a senior minister was forced to deny raping a 16-year-old when they were both students in the 1980s. Critics said the cases, and the government's apparent initial reluctance to act, have highlighted a "toxic" and sexist culture in Australia's parliament. Attorney-General Michaelia Cash, who last week replaced the rape-accused minister in the government's top legal role, said other proposed legislative changes would include classifying sexual harassment at work as "serious misconduct" and making it valid grounds for dismissal. The government also plans to extend the period in which a victim can report an incident from six months to two years, she added. Nationwide protests The Respect@Work report was drawn up by the government's own sex discrimination commissioner, Kate Jenkins, and Morrison has been under growing criticism for failing to act on its 55 recommendations since it was first submitted in January 2020. The prime minister rejected the criticism on Thursday, saying his government had already committed to funding several recommendations it felt were high priority. "Last year, we were very focused on those very urgent needs to protect women at a time when they were very vulnerable during Covid," he said. "We put the additional resources in and now we're in a position to address these more systemic and longer-term issues which are very important and I'm pleased we're able to do that today." The rape allegations sparked nationwide protests, with tens of thousands of women taking to the streets to call for gender equality and an end to sexual violence. In recent weeks, Morrison's coalition government has been rocked by a litany of new sexual abuse and harassment complaints -- from a staff member photographed masturbating on a female politician's desk, to a state MP being accused of raping a sex worker, to another lawmaker apologising for harassing women online. A media blitz aimed at showing Morrison's empathy with women has only added to the furore through a series of missteps, and he eventually demoted two top ministers in an attempt to draw a line under the scandals. (With inputs from agencies)

Politicians no longer exempt from sexual harassment rules, says Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison

When Julia Banks arrived in Parliament five years ago after a successful career in law and business, she felt as if she’d stepped back into the ’80s. Alcohol flowed freely. She occasionally smelled it on the breath of male lawmakers when they voted.

Many men in Australian politics also thought nothing of belittling women, she said, or spreading sexual rumors. More than a few treated junior employees like playthings. Once, Banks said, a fellow lawmaker introduced a new intern while slowly rubbing his hand up and down the young woman’s back.

“I could see her visibly flinch,” Banks said. “She and I locked eyes, and I’m sure the nonverbal cue to me was ‘don’t say anything, please don’t say anything, I’ll lose my job.’”

“It is the most unsafe workplace in the country,” she added.

Australia’s #MeToo moment has arrived, late but strong, like a tsunami directed at the country’s political foundation. Six weeks after a former legislative staffer, Brittany Higgins, accused a senior colleague of raping her in the defense minister’s office, thousands of women are standing up to share their stories, march for justice and demand change.

The conservative coalition led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison is now facing a historic backlash, which has started to depress his polling numbers as he confronts one scandal after another.

While the misogyny problem is widespread, the focal point has become politics — a realm that more and more women describe as Australia’s most sexist backwater, where many men have long assumed they can act like kings. Women of every party say that for years, they have been demeaned while trying to do their jobs. They have been groped and insulted, ignored and interrupted — and whenever they have questioned such behavior, they have faced a barrage of attacks.

“There’s so much stored-up anger and hurt,” said Tanya Plibersek, a Labor Party leader who is the opposition’s minister for women. “Once people start telling their stories, it’s hard to stop.”

In many ways, Australia’s political class is playing catch-up. The country’s corporations and other institutions have shifted gradually toward gender equity, but male privilege continues to reverberate through the halls of power. The causes are both common (refusing to give up power) and parochial (failing to realize that Australian culture can be sexist).

“They just won’t see it,” said Louise Chappell, a political scientist at the University of New South Wales who has been studying gender and Australian politics since the ’90s. “And they won’t see it in structural terms.”

Many women said they faced chauvinism as soon as they entered politics.

Soon after the Labor Party asked Kate Ellis to be a federal candidate for the 2004 election, she said, she overheard her own campaign team discussing photos for her poster. “No, she looks like a bimbo in that one,” she recalled hearing someone say.

“You’d have moments like that on a daily basis,” she said.

Banks, who left Parliament in 2019 and is finishing a book about bias, said she encountered the low hum of disrespect at one of her first fundraisers, where she discovered she was not on the speakers’ list. It was all men.

There must be some mistake, she told the Liberal Party official in charge.

“‘Don’t you worry about that, darling,’” she recalled him responding, “‘we’ll give you the raffle at the end.’”

Parliament proved to be even worse. “Mansplaining, talking over women, inappropriate jokes, inappropriate touching — it was all that,” Banks said.

In interviews, many current and former lawmakers described Parliament House as a testosterone-fueled bunker. Its hallways are wide, the offices have thick walls, and every minister’s suite includes a full kitchen and a couch big enough for sleeping. Most refrigerators are stocked with beer and wine.

Most members of Parliament are men, as are most staffers. In the past 20 years, Australia has fallen from 15th to 50th in the world for parliamentary gender diversity. The parliamentary delegations of the conservative Liberal and National parties, which govern with a slim majority, are more than 80% male.

Contributing to the fraternity vibe, Canberra is a part-time capital. Votes are often called after 6 p.m., and families are left behind in local districts, since the legislature only sits for 20 weeks a year. When it’s busy, Parliament has often been compared to a gentleman’s club, though to some, it’s more Peter Pan at the pub.

Sarah Hanson-Young, a Greens party senator, said male rivals would often shout across the chamber the names of men she was falsely accused of sleeping with.

“It was like a game these blokes were playing with just the most intense level of scorn,” she told Ellis for her book “Sex, Lies and Question Time.”

Hanson-Young sued a Senate colleague, David Leyonhjelm, for defamation after he shouted “stop shagging men” at her on the floor of the chamber in 2018. She recently won a $120,000 judgment against him but endured death threats along the way.

The misbehavior, many said, trickles down from the top.

“It’s a permission ecosystem where men are behaving badly, and their young staff are seeing them get away with it,” said Emma Husar, a former member of Parliament from Sydney.

While the alcohol in Parliament is not the primary cause, she added, it is a contributing factor.

“There are a lot of blurred boundaries,” she said. “From about 5 o’clock on, there are copious amounts of booze poured.”

At a daytime function without alcohol in 2017, she said, she was groped by a member of the Liberal Party. When she went to her Labor Party bosses, she said, they told her not to say anything. Her political career ended after a BuzzFeed article claimed she had been bullying staff members and once uncrossed her legs to show she was not wearing underwear in front of a male colleague.

She and the man denied it ever happened. When Husar sued for defamation, BuzzFeed apologized and removed the article. But the story went viral, and Husar said she was forced by her party to step aside and not run again in 2019.

Ellis called the story about Husar “weaponized gossip.” She said she had a near miss when a reporter almost wrote about a lie making the rounds, that she and her chief of staff were sleeping with the same man.

Women said the message from their bosses was always clear: Secrets are for insiders, and don’t bother trying to find the truth.

“There has been this sort of ‘do know, don’t tell’ policy,” said Chappell at the University of New South Wales. “The bubble analogy works — everyone who’s in there was keeping the secrets.”

Initially, Higgins, the woman whose rape allegations have shaken the country, agreed to keep quiet.

On the night of March 22, 2019, she said, she was drinking with friends in Canberra and accepted a ride with a senior male colleague who, instead of taking her home, directed the taxi to Parliament House. There, she said, she woke up “mid-rape” and told the man to stop.

She said she quickly reported the attack, informing Linda Reynolds, the defense minister, and more than a dozen others. Higgins, then 24, pursued charges with the police, but said she dropped them because of pressure from Liberal Party leaders. She said she was made to feel like she had to choose: her job or justice.

All of this stayed private until last month, when — after seeing the prime minister standing on a podium with the Australian of the Year, Grace Tame, a sexual assault survivor — she decided to speak up.

“In my mind his government was complicit in silencing me,” she said. “It was a betrayal.”

Higgins has gone back to the police to open an investigation. Several other women have since come forward with accusations in the news media against the same man. (He was fired after the alleged attack on Higgins but has not been publicly identified.)

The women’s collective claims broke the stalemate. Women in Parliament and others who had recently left called for accountability. Tens of thousands of women marched all over Australia on March 4 to demand justice, inspired by Higgins and angered by accusations against Christian Porter, then the attorney general.

Just a day earlier, as news reports emerged of an unidentified Cabinet minister accused of sexual assault, Porter had named himself as the suspect. He publicly denied the allegation — made by a woman who said he raped her when they were teenagers — and refused to resign.

Morrison, a career politician, has only recently seemed to grasp the extent of the misogyny in Parliament. Nearly three weeks after the protests, he admitted that “many Australians, especially women, believe that I have not heard them, and that greatly distresses me.”

“We must get our house in order,” he said.

In the meantime, bad behavior from the recent past continues to surface. Last month, nightly news channels led their programs with pixelated videos and photos of male Liberal Party staff members in Parliament masturbating onto the desks of female ministers. One of them has been fired.

A Liberal lawmaker was accused of harassing two female constituents. He agreed not to run again and apologized, but Morrison has come under fire for not making him resign.

Many women are also angry at the prime minister for protecting Porter, whom he recently moved from his role as attorney general into a new Cabinet position.

And more women are resisting a return to business as usual.

Last week, Dr. Anne Webster, a new member of Parliament with the conservative National Party, said a male lawmaker had sexually harassed her. That kind of thing might once have been ignored, but she filed a formal complaint with party leadership, prompting the man to apologize.

“That’s what Australians expect of us now,” she said.

“Inch by inch, culture changes,” she added. “All of us are learning; all of us are adjusting to a new platform.”

When Julia Banks arrived in Parliament five years ago after a successful career in law and business, she felt as if she’d stepped back into the ’80s. Alcohol flowed freely.

When Julia Banks arrived in Parliament five years ago after a successful career in law and business, she felt as if she’d stepped back into the ’80s. Alcohol flowed freely. She occasionally smelled it on the breath of male lawmakers when they voted. Many men in Australian politics also thought nothing of belittling women, she said, or spreading sexual rumors. More than a few treated junior employees like playthings. Once, Banks said, a fellow lawmaker introduced a new intern while slowly rubbing his hand up and down the young woman’s back. “I could see her visibly flinch,” Banks said. “She and I locked eyes, and I’m sure the nonverbal cue to me was ‘don’t say anything, please don’t say anything, I’ll lose my job.’” “It is the most unsafe workplace in the country,” she added. Australia’s #MeToo moment has arrived, late but strong, like a tsunami directed at the country’s political foundation. Six weeks after a former legislative staffer, Brittany Higgins, accused a senior colleague of raping her in the defense minister’s office, thousands of women are standing up to share their stories, march for justice and demand change. The conservative coalition led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison is now facing a historic backlash, which has started to depress his polling numbers as he confronts one scandal after another. While the misogyny problem is widespread, the focal point has become politics — a realm that more and more women describe as Australia’s most sexist backwater, where many men have long assumed they can act like kings. Women of every party say that for years, they have been demeaned while trying to do their jobs. They have been groped and insulted, ignored and interrupted — and whenever they have questioned such behavior, they have faced a barrage of attacks. “There’s so much stored-up anger and hurt,” said Tanya Plibersek, a Labor Party leader who is the opposition’s minister for women. “Once people start telling their stories, it’s hard to stop.” In many ways, Australia’s political class is playing catch-up. The country’s corporations and other institutions have shifted gradually toward gender equity, but male privilege continues to reverberate through the halls of power. The causes are both common (refusing to give up power) and parochial (failing to realize that Australian culture can be sexist). “They just won’t see it,” said Louise Chappell, a political scientist at the University of New South Wales who has been studying gender and Australian politics since the ’90s. “And they won’t see it in structural terms.” Many women said they faced chauvinism as soon as they entered politics. Soon after the Labor Party asked Kate Ellis to be a federal candidate for the 2004 election, she said, she overheard her own campaign team discussing photos for her poster. “No, she looks like a bimbo in that one,” she recalled hearing someone say. “You’d have moments like that on a daily basis,” she said. Banks, who left Parliament in 2019 and is finishing a book about bias, said she encountered the low hum of disrespect at one of her first fundraisers, where she discovered she was not on the speakers’ list. It was all men. There must be some mistake, she told the Liberal Party official in charge. “‘Don’t you worry about that, darling,’” she recalled him responding, “‘we’ll give you the raffle at the end.’” Parliament proved to be even worse. “Mansplaining, talking over women, inappropriate jokes, inappropriate touching — it was all that,” Banks said. In interviews, many current and former lawmakers described Parliament House as a testosterone-fueled bunker. Its hallways are wide, the offices have thick walls, and every minister’s suite includes a full kitchen and a couch big enough for sleeping. Most refrigerators are stocked with beer and wine. Most members of Parliament are men, as are most staffers. In the past 20 years, Australia has fallen from 15th to 50th in the world for parliamentary gender diversity. The parliamentary delegations of the conservative Liberal and National parties, which govern with a slim majority, are more than 80% male. Contributing to the fraternity vibe, Canberra is a part-time capital. Votes are often called after 6 p.m., and families are left behind in local districts, since the legislature only sits for 20 weeks a year. When it’s busy, Parliament has often been compared to a gentleman’s club, though to some, it’s more Peter Pan at the pub. Sarah Hanson-Young, a Greens party senator, said male rivals would often shout across the chamber the names of men she was falsely accused of sleeping with. “It was like a game these blokes were playing with just the most intense level of scorn,” she told Ellis for her book “Sex, Lies and Question Time.” Hanson-Young sued a Senate colleague, David Leyonhjelm, for defamation after he shouted “stop shagging men” at her on the floor of the chamber in 2018. She recently won a $120,000 judgment against him but endured death threats along the way. The misbehavior, many said, trickles down from the top. “It’s a permission ecosystem where men are behaving badly, and their young staff are seeing them get away with it,” said Emma Husar, a former member of Parliament from Sydney. While the alcohol in Parliament is not the primary cause, she added, it is a contributing factor. “There are a lot of blurred boundaries,” she said. “From about 5 o’clock on, there are copious amounts of booze poured.” At a daytime function without alcohol in 2017, she said, she was groped by a member of the Liberal Party. When she went to her Labor Party bosses, she said, they told her not to say anything. Her political career ended after a BuzzFeed article claimed she had been bullying staff members and once uncrossed her legs to show she was not wearing underwear in front of a male colleague. She and the man denied it ever happened. When Husar sued for defamation, BuzzFeed apologized and removed the article. But the story went viral, and Husar said she was forced by her party to step aside and not run again in 2019. Ellis called the story about Husar “weaponized gossip.” She said she had a near miss when a reporter almost wrote about a lie making the rounds, that she and her chief of staff were sleeping with the same man. Women said the message from their bosses was always clear: Secrets are for insiders, and don’t bother trying to find the truth. “There has been this sort of ‘do know, don’t tell’ policy,” said Chappell at the University of New South Wales. “The bubble analogy works — everyone who’s in there was keeping the secrets.” Initially, Higgins, the woman whose rape allegations have shaken the country, agreed to keep quiet. On the night of March 22, 2019, she said, she was drinking with friends in Canberra and accepted a ride with a senior male colleague who, instead of taking her home, directed the taxi to Parliament House. There, she said, she woke up “mid-rape” and told the man to stop. She said she quickly reported the attack, informing Linda Reynolds, the defense minister, and more than a dozen others. Higgins, then 24, pursued charges with the police, but said she dropped them because of pressure from Liberal Party leaders. She said she was made to feel like she had to choose: her job or justice. All of this stayed private until last month, when — after seeing the prime minister standing on a podium with the Australian of the Year, Grace Tame, a sexual assault survivor — she decided to speak up. “In my mind his government was complicit in silencing me,” she said. “It was a betrayal.” Higgins has gone back to the police to open an investigation. Several other women have since come forward with accusations in the news media against the same man. (He was fired after the alleged attack on Higgins but has not been publicly identified.) The women’s collective claims broke the stalemate. Women in Parliament and others who had recently left called for accountability. Tens of thousands of women marched all over Australia on March 4 to demand justice, inspired by Higgins and angered by accusations against Christian Porter, then the attorney general. Just a day earlier, as news reports emerged of an unidentified Cabinet minister accused of sexual assault, Porter had named himself as the suspect. He publicly denied the allegation — made by a woman who said he raped her when they were teenagers — and refused to resign. Morrison, a career politician, has only recently seemed to grasp the extent of the misogyny in Parliament. Nearly three weeks after the protests, he admitted that “many Australians, especially women, believe that I have not heard them, and that greatly distresses me.” “We must get our house in order,” he said. In the meantime, bad behavior from the recent past continues to surface. Last month, nightly news channels led their programs with pixelated videos and photos of male Liberal Party staff members in Parliament masturbating onto the desks of female ministers. One of them has been fired. A Liberal lawmaker was accused of harassing two female constituents. He agreed not to run again and apologized, but Morrison has come under fire for not making him resign. Many women are also angry at the prime minister for protecting Porter, whom he recently moved from his role as attorney general into a new Cabinet position. And more women are resisting a return to business as usual. Last week, Dr. Anne Webster, a new member of Parliament with the conservative National Party, said a male lawmaker had sexually harassed her. That kind of thing might once have been ignored, but she filed a formal complaint with party leadership, prompting the man to apologize. “That’s what Australians expect of us now,” she said. “Inch by inch, culture changes,” she added. “All of us are learning; all of us are adjusting to a new platform.”

‘The most unsafe workplace’? Parliament, Australian women say

The Australian parliament is once again in the news and for all the wrong reasons. After a couple of women came forward to tell their tales of sexual assault within the parliament building, a video has emerged that allegedly showed the staff members performing sexual acts in the offices.

Footage leaked to media allegedly showed a senior aide performing a sex act on a female MP’s desk.&nbsp; The&nbsp;aide has been fired from his position in the Australian parliament.

Also read |&nbsp;<a data-ctorig="https://www.wionews.com/world/twelve-hours-of-hell-couple-gets-married-amid-nsw-floods-372525" data-cturl="https://www.google.com/url?client=internal-element-cse&amp;cx=006054055338965708568:09spwrlibei&amp;q=https://www.wionews.com/world/twelve-hours-of-hell-couple-gets-married-amid-nsw-floods-372525&amp;sa=U&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjyytbuuMbvAhU-8HMBHf5DDQ8QFjAAegQIAxAC&amp;usg=AOvVaw0zj09bFF9-aZAMS7hbL_Tx" dir="ltr" href="https://www.wionews.com/world/twelve-hours-of-hell-couple-gets-married-amid-nsw-floods-372525" target="_blank">Twelve hours of hell: Couple gets married amid NSW floods</a>

This video was leaked by a former government staff member, who claims to have become “immune” due to the high volume of such images and videos&nbsp;he had received.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has described the new turn of events as “disgraceful”.

The video in question was filmed two years ago. The former government officer also claimed that members of parliament used the prayer room to have sex, and some even brought sex workers into the parliament.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/videos/australian-pm-disgusted-by-sex-scandal-in-govt-wants-more-women-in-politics-372532">Watch |</a>

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/australian-pm-disgusted-by-sex-scandal-in-govt-wants-more-women-in-politics-372532/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

Describing some of the members of parliament as “morally bankrupt”, the whistleblower said the parliament composes of a “culture of men thinking that they can do whatever they want”.

Morrison said he was “shocked” after he got to know about the “disgraceful” video. “We must get this house in order. We must put the politics aside on these things, and we must recognise this problem, acknowledge it, and we must fix it,” he said.

This has come after friends of a&nbsp;victim sent a letter to the authorities alleging she had been sexually assaulted by a senior member of the parliament. Another local, Brittany Higgins, alleged that she was raped by a senior colleague in an office in the Australian parliament in March 2019.

Women in Australia have been trying to fight against these assaults, on behalf of women who feel too threatened to come out and not lose their jobs.

(With inputs from agencies)

The Australian parliament is once again in the news and for all the wrong reasons. After a couple of women came forward to tell their tales of sexual assault within the parliament building, a video has emerged that allegedly showed the staff members performing sexual acts in the offices.

The Australian parliament is once again in the news and for all the wrong reasons. After a couple of women came forward to tell their tales of sexual assault within the parliament building, a video has emerged that allegedly showed the staff members performing sexual acts in the offices. Footage leaked to media allegedly showed a senior aide performing a sex act on a female MP’s desk. The aide has been fired from his position in the Australian parliament. Also read | Twelve hours of hell: Couple gets married amid NSW floods This video was leaked by a former government staff member, who claims to have become “immune” due to the high volume of such images and videos he had received. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has described the new turn of events as “disgraceful”. The video in question was filmed two years ago. The former government officer also claimed that members of parliament used the prayer room to have sex, and some even brought sex workers into the parliament. Watch | Describing some of the members of parliament as “morally bankrupt”, the whistleblower said the parliament composes of a “culture of men thinking that they can do whatever they want”. Morrison said he was “shocked” after he got to know about the “disgraceful” video. “We must get this house in order. We must put the politics aside on these things, and we must recognise this problem, acknowledge it, and we must fix it,” he said. This has come after friends of a victim sent a letter to the authorities alleging she had been sexually assaulted by a senior member of the parliament. Another local, Brittany Higgins, alleged that she was raped by a senior colleague in an office in the Australian parliament in March 2019. Women in Australia have been trying to fight against these assaults, on behalf of women who feel too threatened to come out and not lose their jobs. (With inputs from agencies)

Australian govt rocked by leaked video allegedly showing sex acts in parliament; aide fired

When a government employee first went to police two years ago with claims of being raped in Australia’s Parliament building, she dropped the case, fearful of losing her job. Two years later, she decided to speak out publicly, prompting a political fallout that emboldened her Wednesday to file an official police report.

In the days since she went public, three other women have come forward, telling local news outlets that the same man, a former Liberal Party employee, had sexually assaulted them.

Watch |&nbsp;

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“Most cases of this nature don’t end up in a conviction,” the former government employee, Brittany Higgins, 26, said in a phone interview with The New York Times. “I’m speaking my truth, and I know it’s the right thing to do.”

To women’s rights advocates, the situation reflects the systemic misogyny in Australia’s halls of power, especially in the governing conservative Liberal Party.

Higgins said she had been questioned by the defense minister, then her boss, in the same room where the attack took place: the minister’s office. Those allegations drew an apology from Prime Minister Scott Morrison. “This should not be an environment where a young woman can find herself in such a vulnerable situation,” he said last week. “That is not OK.”

But he was excoriated for what critics called a “train wreck” of a response. He seemed to suggest that it wasn’t until he’d had a chat with his wife — who he said had asked, “What if it was one of your daughters?” — that he offered an apology.

Some current and former government employees said they hoped the accusations finally catalyzed a cultural shift in Parliament. Some women’s rights advocates said such attitudes toward women ran deep in the blood of not only Australia’s government but also the nation at large, which has tended to lag behind other Western countries on gender issues.

“We really refuse to believe women,” said Sharna Bremner, an assault survivor and the founder of End Rape on Campus Australia, adding that the country’s strict defamation laws have tended to stifle the #MeToo movement.

The new accusations by the other women, spanning 2016 to 2020, were reported by the newspaper The Australian and the Australian Broadcasting Corp. At least one woman who came forward said she had done so out of support for Higgins. The women, who could not be reached for comment, have not been publicly identified. They have not publicly identified the man, either.

“I’m so sorry they had to go through this because I know how soul-destroying it is,” Higgins said of the women coming forward. She and her partner both left their jobs as a result of her ordeal, she added. “It’s been incredibly difficult,” she said. “It’s been deeply painful for my family to go through, for my loved ones to go through. I commend them personally on their bravery.”

One of the three women, whose accusations were first published Sunday in The Weekend Australian, said she had chosen to tell her story to help shine a light on the “awful” culture in the Australian government.

The woman told the paper that she met the man last year for dinner. She said that after he bought her several drinks, they went to her home, where he had sex with her without wearing a condom, despite her telling him they could not have sex unless he wore one. She told The Australian that if Higgins’ case had been properly dealt with by the government in 2019, “this would not have happened to me.”

Another woman, whose accusations were published by The Australian on Monday, said the same man had sexually assaulted her just days before the 2016 election. The woman said she had just finished high school. The man bought several rounds of vodka and tequila shots for her and offered to “look after” her in his hotel room, she said. The woman said that, after falling asleep, she awoke to find herself half undressed and the man lying on top of her.

She told The Australian that hearing Higgins’ story made her think her attacker “has a pattern of behavior.”

Another woman, whose account was made public Monday, said the same man “reached his hand under the table and stroked her thigh” in 2017, during drinks with colleagues at a bar in Canberra, the ABC reported.

In the days since all four women went public, Morrison has announced several inquiries into areas such as workplace culture, how sexual abuse accusations are handled by the government and what his own office knew about the alleged assault of Higgins at the time. Some of the investigations will be conducted by government ministers and others by independent agencies, he said.

Critics have said the government’s response has been lackluster. Governmental inquiries, they say, are likely to fall short of the kind of drastic cultural shift required to change attitudes toward women in Parliament and beyond.

“A review is a political Band-Aid,” said Rachael Burgin, a lecturer in criminology at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne. “I’ve seen nothing from anyone in the government to suggest that they’ve taken it seriously enough to see some substantive change,” Burgin added.

Others have questioned Morrison’s claims that he had no knowledge of the alleged assault when it first occurred. Morrison has said he did not know about it until Feb. 12. He has since asked Phil Gaetjens, secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, to conduct an inquiry.

Higgins’ former boss in Parliament, Defense Minister Linda Reynolds, has also apologized to Higgins, especially for holding a meeting about the alleged assault in the same room where it had occurred. On Wednesday, as Reynolds was set to discuss her handling of the accusations, she was hospitalized, citing existing medical conditions.

Higgins has said she was “determined to drive significant reform in the way the Australian Parliament handles issues of this nature and treats ministerial and parliamentary staff more generally.” She said that, for example, in 2019, an employee in the prime minister’s office had refused to provide her with access to the closed-circuit television footage from the evening of the alleged assault.

“Brittany Higgins is giving us an opportunity here to actually fix something,” said Clare O’Neil, a member of the opposition Labor Party. “This is a nation’s Parliament. We should be setting the standard, not the floor.” 
&nbsp;

When a government employee first went to police two years ago with claims of being raped in Australia’s Parliament building, she dropped the case, fearful of losing her job.

When a government employee first went to police two years ago with claims of being raped in Australia’s Parliament building, she dropped the case, fearful of losing her job. Two years later, she decided to speak out publicly, prompting a political fallout that emboldened her Wednesday to file an official police report. In the days since she went public, three other women have come forward, telling local news outlets that the same man, a former Liberal Party employee, had sexually assaulted them. Watch | “Most cases of this nature don’t end up in a conviction,” the former government employee, Brittany Higgins, 26, said in a phone interview with The New York Times. “I’m speaking my truth, and I know it’s the right thing to do.” To women’s rights advocates, the situation reflects the systemic misogyny in Australia’s halls of power, especially in the governing conservative Liberal Party. Higgins said she had been questioned by the defense minister, then her boss, in the same room where the attack took place: the minister’s office. Those allegations drew an apology from Prime Minister Scott Morrison. “This should not be an environment where a young woman can find herself in such a vulnerable situation,” he said last week. “That is not OK.” But he was excoriated for what critics called a “train wreck” of a response. He seemed to suggest that it wasn’t until he’d had a chat with his wife — who he said had asked, “What if it was one of your daughters?” — that he offered an apology. Some current and former government employees said they hoped the accusations finally catalyzed a cultural shift in Parliament. Some women’s rights advocates said such attitudes toward women ran deep in the blood of not only Australia’s government but also the nation at large, which has tended to lag behind other Western countries on gender issues. “We really refuse to believe women,” said Sharna Bremner, an assault survivor and the founder of End Rape on Campus Australia, adding that the country’s strict defamation laws have tended to stifle the #MeToo movement. The new accusations by the other women, spanning 2016 to 2020, were reported by the newspaper The Australian and the Australian Broadcasting Corp. At least one woman who came forward said she had done so out of support for Higgins. The women, who could not be reached for comment, have not been publicly identified. They have not publicly identified the man, either. “I’m so sorry they had to go through this because I know how soul-destroying it is,” Higgins said of the women coming forward. She and her partner both left their jobs as a result of her ordeal, she added. “It’s been incredibly difficult,” she said. “It’s been deeply painful for my family to go through, for my loved ones to go through. I commend them personally on their bravery.” One of the three women, whose accusations were first published Sunday in The Weekend Australian, said she had chosen to tell her story to help shine a light on the “awful” culture in the Australian government. The woman told the paper that she met the man last year for dinner. She said that after he bought her several drinks, they went to her home, where he had sex with her without wearing a condom, despite her telling him they could not have sex unless he wore one. She told The Australian that if Higgins’ case had been properly dealt with by the government in 2019, “this would not have happened to me.” Another woman, whose accusations were published by The Australian on Monday, said the same man had sexually assaulted her just days before the 2016 election. The woman said she had just finished high school. The man bought several rounds of vodka and tequila shots for her and offered to “look after” her in his hotel room, she said. The woman said that, after falling asleep, she awoke to find herself half undressed and the man lying on top of her. She told The Australian that hearing Higgins’ story made her think her attacker “has a pattern of behavior.” Another woman, whose account was made public Monday, said the same man “reached his hand under the table and stroked her thigh” in 2017, during drinks with colleagues at a bar in Canberra, the ABC reported. In the days since all four women went public, Morrison has announced several inquiries into areas such as workplace culture, how sexual abuse accusations are handled by the government and what his own office knew about the alleged assault of Higgins at the time. Some of the investigations will be conducted by government ministers and others by independent agencies, he said. Critics have said the government’s response has been lackluster. Governmental inquiries, they say, are likely to fall short of the kind of drastic cultural shift required to change attitudes toward women in Parliament and beyond. “A review is a political Band-Aid,” said Rachael Burgin, a lecturer in criminology at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne. “I’ve seen nothing from anyone in the government to suggest that they’ve taken it seriously enough to see some substantive change,” Burgin added. Others have questioned Morrison’s claims that he had no knowledge of the alleged assault when it first occurred. Morrison has said he did not know about it until Feb. 12. He has since asked Phil Gaetjens, secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, to conduct an inquiry. Higgins’ former boss in Parliament, Defense Minister Linda Reynolds, has also apologized to Higgins, especially for holding a meeting about the alleged assault in the same room where it had occurred. On Wednesday, as Reynolds was set to discuss her handling of the accusations, she was hospitalized, citing existing medical conditions. Higgins has said she was “determined to drive significant reform in the way the Australian Parliament handles issues of this nature and treats ministerial and parliamentary staff more generally.” She said that, for example, in 2019, an employee in the prime minister’s office had refused to provide her with access to the closed-circuit television footage from the evening of the alleged assault. “Brittany Higgins is giving us an opportunity here to actually fix something,” said Clare O’Neil, a member of the opposition Labor Party. “This is a nation’s Parliament. We should be setting the standard, not the floor.”

She made a 'soul-destroying' rape claim. Then 3 others came forward.