This is part five of #MeTooWhere? Crikey’s exploration of the past, present and future of the Me Too movement. Read the full series here.
This series has focused on how simply being aware and calling out harassment will never lead to change. Getting in the ear of politicians — local MPs, policymakers and the government — with specific demands is crucial to overhaul our pervasive culture of sexual violence and Australia’s worsening inequality.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of things you can demand.
Action, action, action
Decades of reports with hundreds of targeted recommendations to address inequality and sexual violence currently sit on Scott Morrison’s desk — from improving social responses to sexual assault and developing new measures of success when coordinating domestic violence funding, to recommendations to close the gender pay gap, to Kate Jenkin’s Respect@Work report.
These recommendations must be reconsidered, actioned and funded. The government must put its money where its mouth is rather than funding more inquiries. An inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violence is also currently underway.
Policy architecture
Give the Office for Women more funding and wide-ranging, structural powers. It currently has half the staff it did a decade ago, with staff denied access to information. While we’re on it, we should also replace Marise Payne with a minister for woman who is capable of commenting on issues and is not also shouldering another major portfolio, and replace Amanda Stoker as assistant minister with… well, anyone who doesn’t accuse women speaking out against bullying of “playing the gender card”.
The government could also enact a bill of rights, as many other liberal democracies have, to ensure all new legislation protects human rights.
Identify family and sexual violence
Australia’s family law and criminal justice system need reform. The government’s move to merge the Family Court with the Federal Circuit Court means it is even more poorly placed to deal with domestic violence, with limited specialists available to recognise the signs of violence.
Processes need to be streamlined to improve efficiency and increase the likelihood women will have their cases heard, while doctors, nurses, police and judges — along with juries hearing cases involving sexual violence — need to be better prepared to better recognise signs of sexual violence and coercive control. Apprehended violence order standards need to be improved so there is consistent accountability for those who breach them.
State incident-based laws addressing domestic violence also need to be amended to better acknowledge or criminalise coercive control, while laws should also be amended so that consent is defined as affirmative and enthusiastic. Specific, measurable goals must also be added to Australia’s National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children (rather than the vague ones currently in place).
The government should also support an amendment to the Fair Work Act allowing 10 days’ paid leave for those fleeing domestic violence. Those on temporary visas experiencing family violence should qualify for social security rights, including legal, welfare and medical services.
A national council on violence against Indigenous women must be established immediately, and one of the few inquires we do need is one into murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls.
Improve sexual assault and consent literacy
The National Community Attitudes Survey on Violence Against Women shows us many Australians blame victims, minimise abuse, and excuse the actions of perpetrators.
Formal consent education needs to start at a young age and continue throughout high school, discussing healthy sexual relationships and the role power plays. Members of Morrison’s cabinet should also be briefed on sexual violence.
Work to end inequality and discrimination
Recommendations have been made time and time again, and the government has yet to respond. It must implement all of the United Nation’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women recommendations. Australia signed the convention back in 1983 but has implemented just 25% of the recommendations, falling behind nations including Afghanistan and the Philippines. The government must also action all 55 recommendations from last year’s workplace sexual harassment Respect@Work report.
The age of criminal responsibility, which disproportionately affects Indigenous children, should be increased to 14, as recommended by the United Nations. More also needs to be done to address Australia’s poverty rate (which disproportionally affects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people), including increasing JobSeeker and investing in social housing and affordable homes.
Fully fund specialist support services
Tens of thousands are turned away from crisis support, housing assistance and legal services every year thanks to underfunding. Since early 2020 there has been a surge in calls to crisis support services such as 1800RESPECT, though these are funded through fee-per-call meaning they cannot quickly respond to surges in demand. Access to culturally or linguistically diverse and Indigenous-specific support services must also be improved with increased funding, particularly for legal aid services in remote communities.
Close the gender-pay and superannuation gap
The government should oblige companies to disclose gender pay gaps in their businesses and restore funding to the Fair Work Commission’s Pay Equity Unit. It should strengthen legislation to recognise discrimination based on family responsibilities.
To address the fact that women retire with 36% less super than men, the rules around superannuation need to change so that its paid on Commonwealth parental leave and to those earning less than $450 a month to allow women working multiple part-time jobs to bolster their funds. Women should also be allowed to put more cash into their super to address career breaks.
Workplaces and political parties need to address gender bias in recruitment and promotion — which can be done through quotas when necessary (looking at you, LNP).
More support for parents
This would help address both the superannuation and pay gaps and enhance equality over the division of labour. This can be done by investing in universal early learning: spending $5 billion on universal early learning would also deliver $11 billion by helping women back into the workforce.
Gender-neutral workplace flexibility and parental leave should also be implemented so men take up entitlements too.
If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault or violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au.
Next: Where to from here?
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There are lots of great solutions there that men can and should get behind. Lets talk solutions and stop focusing and arguing about blame.
Stop arguing/focusing on blame: solution
Geez what could I say… curious? Sing! Pray! Forgive and forget! Die!
Thank you for the minuses. It was a tounge in cheek response.
Of course we could hold governments to account. We could hold funding for support to account. We could hold organisations supporting women of violence to account. We could hold state police to account. We could hold the law system to account. We could hold advocates of women and mental health to account. We could hold the medical system to account. We could hold journalists to account.
We could hold work places to account. We could hold aged care to account. We could hold schools to account. We could hold councils to account. We could hold universities to account. We could hold women to account. We could hold men to account.
Etc etc. But in this global perfect storm no one will hold anyone or any org to account. Toooo many things to focus on. Perfect.
I gave you a plus so you’re back to minus 1 I think I understand your point. Obviously we need solutions and change. But it’s men who assault and harrass women, strains of male culture which encourage it, and institutions which enable it through wilful blindness and self-interest. There’s no obligation to spare them the discomfort of criticism and guilt! (Not to mention consequences for their actions).
Yes, there is nothing wrong with well placed peer pressure. It sorts the extremes In society. Namely misogynistic attitudes and violence against some/many women – often young but not always. There are so many areas that need sorting. It’s overwhelming.
Misogynistics, abusers and rapists need constant social and legal pressure. I fully agree with you!
You know very well what I’m saying (you have read many of my comments on this topic) is that hurling vitriol at all men simply isn’t going to work. Feels great to make ‘them’ hurt, but its going to fail. The mainstream will switch off and with that goes your ability to enact change.
It’s not just them: it’s the men who enable them, the men who refuse to look at their own blind spots of sexism, who imprint a ‘bloke’ culture on groups and organisations irrespective of women’s presence, men who talk over the top of women, pay them less than their male counterparts etc. Harassment and abuse starts with gendered disrespect, which can take many forms, some obvious, some subtle.
Curious – ever since the women’s movement began, men have been telling women what to feel in response to their experience, how to express themselves, what emotions they can show, who they are allowed to blame, and how they must advocate. Another attempt at invalidating and controlling women, and another instance of sexism.
Many (but not all) of your comments consist in being defensive, and telling women what they should do and how they should do it. And I’m sick of it. You have no right to say women shouldn’t ‘argue and blame’.
It’s sexist. Just stop.
And I suppose that no woman ever voted for an LNP representative and in doing so perpetuated the culture of that particular organisation?
You have provided a good list. Now we need a federal government with the commitment, capacity and courage to deal with it.
In other words, forget such government from the clogged bowels of either major party.
Nothing good will ever emerge from the shared cloaca that is consensus politics.
If everyone voted Green next time, you would have all this. Read their policies.
We’ll said. And that also goes for a plethora of issues which demand fresh progressive thinking; something hard to find in Oz with its obstinately conservative mindset!
True enough. Fully-funded sexual assault & DV services; 10 days’ DV leave; implementing the Respect@Work report; nationally consistent consent & sex education; in Victoria, they’ve also thrown their weight behind the revamped anti-vilification law reform underway.
Violence starts with the way a child grows up. People don’t reach a specific age and suddenly become violent, abusive, misogynistic or a misandrist and until we address the factors that lead to such behaviours whatever is done is likely to be nothing more than a band-aid. The culture of the LNP didn’t develop overnight and those people in the organisation whose values are questionable didn’t have them grafted on when they joined.
I worked in the Victorian Power Industry as a manager for twenty years, ten when it was state owned and ten when it was private.
During that time I became aware directly or indirectly of sexual harassment twice.
In the case where I was the responsible manger we dealt with it with reference to our female corporate HR manager Bronwyn the Unbelievable. That’s not her real name I can’t remember it, but she was a formidable woman.
This was thirty years ago. We got the guy in, we explained to him that if it continued he was out and we involved his union and they supported us. The female victim was counseled and it was resolved. The man also got psychological counselling as we thought that their for but the grace of God go I.
I am not saying I knew about all of the incidents, but as soon as we found out we stomped on it.
Of course the people I was dealing with were ordinary people not the entitlement brigade who inhabit upper corporate management and parliament.
We did not see any shame or reflection on the organisation or on us; it was an interpersonal human issue that occurs from time to time and it is management’ s responsibility to deal with effectively. Not only under law but also under the law of human common decency.
In the case where I wasn’t the responsible manager it was also resolved to the satisfaction of the victim.
I also had occasion to deal with same sex bullying between men and guess what?: We resolved it by bringing in an industrial psychologist to work with the group and it was again resolved and relationships flourished.
It’s surprising how if you acknowledge the issue, let the participants know it is unacceptable and put in place sensible remediation and counseling good outcomes are almost certain. I worked from the principle that all of the people involved were basically good, but that they had strayed of the path of righteousness and goodness due to their life’s circumstances.
What we always did was not to get hysterical about it. Blame wasn’t very useful as a detailed description of the bad behaviour and the impact it had on the victim. This approach was a much more profitable avenue for resolution.
I cannot believe the behaviour of our politicians on $200,000 per annum and the response of the leadership to their transgressions it beggars belief.