Brittany Higgins has signed a major book deal to write a memoir detailing her experiences working inside parliament house, with half of the royalties going to the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre.
The former Liberal Party staffer was thrown into the national spotlight in February this year when she came forward with allegations of being raped inside parliament house. Her bravery prompted a national conversation around the workplace culture in parliament, and more broadly, about women’s safety in Australia.
“I feel privileged to be afforded the opportunity to share the story of my time inside Parliament House to readers,” Higgins said in a statement on Tuesday.
“This book will shine a light on the culture inside the corridors of power and provide a firsthand account of what it was like surviving a media storm that turned into a movement.
“I’m proud to commit half of the royalties for each book sold to the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre who were a lifeline for me in the wake of my sexual assault.”
Higgins has signed with publishers Penguin Random House Australia, after a three way auction involving Allen & Unwin and Hachette.
“Brittany’s story, in her own words, will be a call for desperately needed reform, and a watershed moment for Australian women in public life,” Penguin Random House Australia said in a statement.
“This is a personal account of a young woman who took on the most formidable institution in the country, spoke truth to power and sparked a reckoning with systemic abuse that will be felt for years to come.”
Higgins’ bravery has inspired countless Australians, and sparked the #March4Justice rallies that took place all over the country last month. At the rally outside parliament house in Canberra, Brittany said she came forward with her story to help protect other women.
“I watched as the Prime Minister of Australia publicly apologised to me through the media, while privately the media team actively undermined and discredited my loved ones,” she said at the rally.
“I decided to resign and share my story, because I felt it was the only thing that I could do to say that I didn’t co-sign this behaviour. That I don’t believe what happened was right. That I don’t believe a brochure is adequate support. That I don’t believe people should be isolated, intimidated and ignored after traumatic incidents inside the workplace.”