17 February 2021

DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA
WEDNESDAY, 17 FEBRUARY 2021 


SUBJECTS: Workplace culture at Parliament House; call for Independent Review.

JESS WALSH, SENATOR FOR VICTORIA: I want to congratulate Brittany Higgins for speaking out with the courage that she has shown.

I call on the Prime Minister today to say strongly and clearly that there is absolutely no room for sexual harassment and assault in this place - in our Parliament.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister made comments that this should not be an environment in which a young woman can find herself in a vulnerable situation. Well, I would like the Prime Minister to come out today and say strongly and clearly that this place, the Parliament, should never be an environment in which men feel they can get away with sexually harassing or assaulting women.

I call on the Prime Minister today to urgently establish an independent review into what is clearly a toxic culture here in the Parliament, this workplace. 

And I call on him to do that not as a husband; not as a father; but as our Prime Minister. As a Prime Minister for all of us. The review has to be independent, it has to be bipartisan. Because what we really need to see is everyone who works here having the confidence to speak out if they need to.

ENDS