Sexual assault services warn of harm: Brittany Higgins' leaked texts

Sexual assault support services warn of ‘dehumanising’ victim-survivors amid Brittany Higgins’ leaked texts

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A counselling support hotline for victims of sexual, domestic and family violence has warned that the dominating conversation around politicians’ prior knowledge of Brittany Higgins’ sexual assault allegation is being used as a ‘political football’ and seeks to ‘dehumanise’ victim-survivors. 

Last week, The Australian newspaper published private text messages between Higgins and her partner, David Sharaz, which appear to discuss alerting Labor MPs to details of Higgins’ sexual assault allegations against Bruce Lehrmann before they went public. 

While much of the media frenzy has been surrounding who knew what within parliament, one very important question has gone largely unasked: How did Higgins’ private texts get leaked in the first place?

With many victim-survivors already fearful of the risks of reporting to authorities, support services have told the ABC there needs to be questions answered about how personal Higigns’ text messages were leaked. 

“Acknowledging that there are questions to be answered… there needs to be a really big reflection on actually the safety and well-being of Brittany Higgins herself, but also more broadly thinking about complainants, across our community, across our workplaces,” said Tara Hunter, Full Stop Australia’s acting CEO. 

Hunter said that 80 per cent of people do not come forward to report to the police, but there should be an expectation of privacy when they decide to disclose. She added that there’s less than a 2 per cent conviction rate around sexual violence as well. 

As parliament begins the final sitting ahead of winter break, Hunter said, “What we’re seeing and what we will probably see this week is a politicisation of one sexual violence matter that I think will have lasting impacts on those people that potentially are out there thinking will I come forward or not.”

“What some of this messaging says to me is almost ‘think again’ before you speak around what’s happened to you and that feels really concerning.”

Minister for Women Senator Katy Gallagher gave a similar sentiment earlier this week in a statement to reject suggestions from the Coalition that she used prior knowledge of Higgins’ allegations to mislead parliament. 

Gallagher said, “I fear the message out of this for women who want to come forward is ‘watch out’. Women who may now choose to keep allegations of serious sexual or violent abuse silent.”

Speaking in parliament about sexual assault allegations, Labor MP Tanya Plibersek and Independent MP Zoe Daniels called for respect.

“Can I take us back to the issue at hand here, once again? Is it any wonder, Mr. Speaker that only 13 per cent of sexual assaults in this country are reported to police when we see what has been happening in the media this week with SMS messages leaked to the media, with private conversations taped and leaked to the media,” said Plibersek.

Daniels also spoke to “remind the Chamber how triggering this conversation is for the woman involved, the staff in this building and the women around Australia who are victims of sexual assault. And also remind the Chamber that we have young people in the gallery listening to this conversation.” 

Federal police have been asked by Network Ten to investigate the alleged leaking of evidence from the trial of Bruce Lehrmann to the media.

Independent MP Zali Steggall has asked attorney general Mark Dreyfus to consider strengthening the privacy standards media organisations are bound by prior to publication. 

If you or someone you know needs support, please call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au. You can also contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit lifeline.org.au. In an emergency, call 000.

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