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 government on Monday promised a&nbsp;'quick delivery' of an independent probe&nbsp;as pressure grows after a newspaper published a third accusation of rape.

Two female employees of Prime Minister Scott Morrison's Liberal party said last week they had been raped by the same man in 2019 and 2020.

Both have yet to make a formal police complaint, but Brittany Higgins, who has spoken publicly about her alleged rape, said last week that she would do so, though it is unclear if she has lodged one with police.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/another-allegation-made-against-man-accused-of-rape-in-australia-parliament-365316" hreflang="en">Another allegation made against man accused of rape in Australia Parliament</a>

Higgins had alleged that after a night out drinking with conservative Liberal Party colleagues, she was sexually assaulted by one of her male colleagues in in the office of then-defence industry minister Linda Reynolds' office.

Finance Minister Simon Birmingham, who is leading an internal inquiry into workplace culture, said he wanted an investigation that is to be set up next week to be impartial.

"I want complete independence," he told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio. "I want people to have full confidence that this enquiry is genuinely an independent (one)."

<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>

The complaint process is expected to be a central element of the investigation, he said, adding, "This is not something that I expect to drag on for weeks."

Fuelling pressure on Morrison, the Australian newspaper published on Monday the account of a third woman, who said she had also been raped by the unnamed former Liberal party worker on the night of June 29 and the morning of June 30 in 2016.

"I believe his actions constitute sexual assault because he performed or tried to perform sexual acts on me while I was severely intoxicated and unable to provide valid and informed consent," the unidentified woman told the paper.

The incident happened outside parliament, she added.

Already dogged by accusations of improper behaviour towards women, Morrison's Liberals face a barrage of criticism about the way it handled Higgins' internal complaint to Linda Reynolds, who is now defence minister.

Higgins has said she felt pressure not to proceed with a formal complaint for fear of losing her job.

Reynolds last week apologised to Higgins but denied that she or her staff pressured her not to pursue a police complaint.

Morrison said he only learnt of the alleged complaints last week and has sought to placate public anger with an inquiry.

The Australian government on Monday promised a 'quick delivery' of an independent probe as pressure grows after a newspaper published a third accusation of rape.

The Australian government on Monday promised a 'quick delivery' of an independent probe as pressure grows after a newspaper published a third accusation of rape. Two female employees of Prime Minister Scott Morrison's Liberal party said last week they had been raped by the same man in 2019 and 2020. Both have yet to make a formal police complaint, but Brittany Higgins, who has spoken publicly about her alleged rape, said last week that she would do so, though it is unclear if she has lodged one with police. Also read: Another allegation made against man accused of rape in Australia Parliament Higgins had alleged that after a night out drinking with conservative Liberal Party colleagues, she was sexually assaulted by one of her male colleagues in in the office of then-defence industry minister Linda Reynolds' office. Finance Minister Simon Birmingham, who is leading an internal inquiry into workplace culture, said he wanted an investigation that is to be set up next week to be impartial. "I want complete independence," he told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio. "I want people to have full confidence that this enquiry is genuinely an independent (one)." The complaint process is expected to be a central element of the investigation, he said, adding, "This is not something that I expect to drag on for weeks." Fuelling pressure on Morrison, the Australian newspaper published on Monday the account of a third woman, who said she had also been raped by the unnamed former Liberal party worker on the night of June 29 and the morning of June 30 in 2016. "I believe his actions constitute sexual assault because he performed or tried to perform sexual acts on me while I was severely intoxicated and unable to provide valid and informed consent," the unidentified woman told the paper. The incident happened outside parliament, she added. Already dogged by accusations of improper behaviour towards women, Morrison's Liberals face a barrage of criticism about the way it handled Higgins' internal complaint to Linda Reynolds, who is now defence minister. Higgins has said she felt pressure not to proceed with a formal complaint for fear of losing her job. Reynolds last week apologised to Higgins but denied that she or her staff pressured her not to pursue a police complaint. Morrison said he only learnt of the alleged complaints last week and has sought to placate public anger with an inquiry.

Australian government vows 'quick delivery' of independent probe for rape accusation

The Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison has apologised to a former staffer who alleges that she was raped by a parliamentarian in Defence Minster's office. PM Morrison vows a strict probe against the crime and promises to punish the person.

Australia: PM Scott Morrison apologises to woman who was raped in Parliament

A backpacker was repeatedly raped, beaten and choked during a two-month hostage ordeal in Australia, police alleged on Tuesday after she was rescued during a random traffic stop.

The 22-year-old, who court officials said was British, was visibly distressed and had injuries to her face when police pulled over the car she was driving on Monday near Mitchell in outback Queensland, 560 kilometres (350 miles) west of Brisbane.

A 22-year-old man was found hiding in the back of the vehicle.

Authorities say she had been &quot;held against her will and seriously assaulted over a period of several weeks&quot;.

Police said the pair met three months ago and agreed to go on a road trip, but it all went horribly wrong with the woman repeatedly attacked between January 2 and March 5 at various locations.

The man has been charged with a string of offences including four counts of rape, eight of assault, four of strangulation, and two of deprivation of liberty.

&quot;The victim was treated for non-life threatening injuries including facial fractures, bruising and cuts to her body,&quot; police said, with the man remanded in custody to appear in court at a later date.

Australia is a popular destination for young backpackers, with around 600,000 touring the country every year.

They occasionally run into trouble, most famously in the early 1990s when seven were murdered by Ivan Milat in a series of killings that terrified Australia.

Milat is serving consecutive life sentences after the remains of two Britons, three Germans and two Australians were found buried in a forest south-west of Sydney.

(AFP)

Authorities said the 22-year-old was found hiding in the back of a vehicle during a random traffic stop

A backpacker was repeatedly raped, beaten and choked during a two-month hostage ordeal in Australia, police alleged on Tuesday after she was rescued during a random traffic stop. The 22-year-old, who court officials said was British, was visibly distressed and had injuries to her face when police pulled over the car she was driving on Monday near Mitchell in outback Queensland, 560 kilometres (350 miles) west of Brisbane. A 22-year-old man was found hiding in the back of the vehicle. Authorities say she had been "held against her will and seriously assaulted over a period of several weeks". Police said the pair met three months ago and agreed to go on a road trip, but it all went horribly wrong with the woman repeatedly attacked between January 2 and March 5 at various locations. The man has been charged with a string of offences including four counts of rape, eight of assault, four of strangulation, and two of deprivation of liberty. "The victim was treated for non-life threatening injuries including facial fractures, bruising and cuts to her body," police said, with the man remanded in custody to appear in court at a later date. Australia is a popular destination for young backpackers, with around 600,000 touring the country every year. They occasionally run into trouble, most famously in the early 1990s when seven were murdered by Ivan Milat in a series of killings that terrified Australia. Milat is serving consecutive life sentences after the remains of two Britons, three Germans and two Australians were found buried in a forest south-west of Sydney. (AFP)

British backpacker held hostage, repeatedly raped for two months in Australia

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

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

Australian government vows 'quick delivery' of independent probe for rape accusation

Australia: PM Scott Morrison apologises to woman who was raped in Parliament

British backpacker held hostage, repeatedly raped for two months in Australia