'A real gap': Sexual assault, harassment figures within public service not centrally reported

It comes as sexual harassment and assault allegations emerging from within the halls of Parliament House in recent weeks have caused outrage and prompted calls for change.

But despite the Australian Public Service employing a workforce of more than 150,000 Australians, figures on the number of sexual harassment and assault allegations are not reported to a central location.

The Canberra Times asked the 14 federal departments, which employ almost 70,000 public servants, but only three departments, Defence, Finance and Health, provided figures for the 2019-20 financial year.

Defence said it had investigated two sexual harassment cases and two sexual assault matters, Health had received two sexual harassment complaints while Finance said it had received no complaints throughout the year.

Other departments would not provide the number of complaints, allegations or investigations undertaken within the period, citing privacy and confidentiality concerns.

An employment lawyer at Maurice Blackburn, Paloma Cole, warned without this data, it was hard to know whether a problem existed, or could exist, within the public sector.

"Sexual assault and harassment remains a prevalent and serious issue in Australian workplaces, and the APS is definitely not exempt from that," Ms Cole said.

"Unfortunately, we have no idea about how prevalent an issue it is in the APS."

Public service agencies do report the number of complaints of bullying or harassment, including sexual harassment, they receive to the Australian Public Service Commission each year but the commission said it did not collect data on the number of sexual assault allegations across the sector.

It also added the numbers of investigations each agency has undertaken and the severity of harassment complaints were not recorded.

During the 2019-20 reporting period, the commission said the agencies had received 32 complaints of sexual harassment overall, an increase of one complaint on the previous year's figure.

The figures have remained relatively consistent over the years, though Ms Cole said they were likely to be a fraction of the true number of cases.

"We also know that there are some workplaces ... that have particularly poor cultures that really are more conducive to sexual harassment and assault taking place and in the absence of data, how can we identify what workplaces those are?" Ms Cole said.

"Australians expect that people employed by the government [will] be safe at work, they expect that if a particular department has recurring reports of inappropriate conduct that action will be taken to address that, that investigations will be made into why that might be.

"But at this point in time, it appears that we have no concrete data to help us understand, and also to help the APS understand, whether those expectations are being met."

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Ms Cole said there were already mechanisms forcing private employers to report gender equality indicators to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency but there was no reason why that couldn't be expanded to include the number of complaints relating to sexual harassment and assault.

"You cannot have gender equality in the workplace where there is sexual harassment or sexual assault. You just can't," Ms Cole said.

"At the moment, there isn't that positive obligation on employers to keep those records and to report that information [and] that needs to change."

The Human Rights Commission delivered its report into sexual harassment in the workplace in March last year, offering 55 recommendations on preventing and responding to sexual harassment and assault.

One recommendation would amend the Sex Discrimination Act to include public servants while another would force government agencies to report workplace equality figures to the gender equality agency.

Community and Public Sector Union national secretary Melissa Donnelly said it was time the government implemented those recommendations amid the strong criticism.

"All workers deserve safe workplaces, free from gendered harassment and violence," Ms Donnelly said.

"That's why it's so important that the Morrison Government implement all recommendations of the [report].

"The implementation of this report is a crucial step in addressing sexual harassment in the workplace and would improve the APSC processes."

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