We are refusing to acknowledge the truth: Australia has a sexual harassment system that is set up to fail at the very thing it is intended to do – eradicate sexual harassment.

One in three people experiences sexual harassment at work. As the 2018 National Survey revealed, almost two in five women (39%) and just over one in four men (26%) have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace.

We know that sexual harassment is unlawful. So why do we keep hearing the same stories of harassment and assault? Despite all the measures that have been put in place, we are not fixing the problem.

According to the AHRC’s 2018 survey, only 17% of people who experienced sexual harassment at work in the previous five years made a formal report or complaint about the harassment.

In practice, the sexual harassment framework can be seen as a system for filtering out and silencing complaints until nothing much is left. Research shows that very few complainants do not come forward and submit formal complaints because of concerns regarding time and cost of litigation, social consequences, problems with proving discrimination and low compensation. 

There is a positive duty on employers to take reasonable measures to eliminate sexual harassment from their workplace. This means that there is a clear responsibility for creating the kind of workplace systems and structures to prevent sexual harassment from occurring.

My recommendation is a course that is mandatory for every employee to complete as part of their official job training/onboarding process. 

The course would include:

- Mandatory training on what sexual consent and sexual harassment are, and examples of what it looks like.

- What mental health ramifications there are for the person who is being harassed.

- What to do if you or someone you know is being sexually harrassed (what your legal options are, how to go about making a report/coming forward).

- How to respond to someone who confides in you about sexual harassment.

- What to do if you are a bystander.

- What the consequences are for the perpetrators.

We need active and forward-looking measures to prevent harassment, if we keep the system as it is, we will have only the pretence that sexual harassment is being adequately addressed. 

We will keep failing. Let's make the workplace a safer and happier place. The way forward is through education.