Men and the parliamentary conversation
It’s been two months since Australia first learnt about Brittany Higgins’ rape by a staffer in a senior minister’s office. Since then, we’ve been subjected to allegations of rape raised against an Attorney General, to the news about masturbation over another MP’s desk, to other stories from female politicians and staffers about their experiences of sexual assault, harassment and other misconduct, and to strategic references to there being similar problems in both major parties. There have been declamatory statements from the PM and other senior political figures about the awfulness of the acts and the need to support the women concerned, in part through investigations into ‘workplace culture’. Heart-warming descriptions of protective feelings towards one’s daughters and wise advice from one’s marital partner…
To date, there has been almost nothing about the gendered nature of this culture inside of our national Parliament. Specifically, there has been little or no calling out the men who have been the overwhelming number of instigators and enablers of this toxic and abusive behaviour. The focus has been on either the women who have been on the receiving end of abuse and assault, or the nebulous, undefined ‘workplace culture’ that infects our seat of government.
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