A year after a high-profile rape allegation shook Australia’s parliament, the country’s prime leader apologized for rampant sexual harassment, abuse, and intimidation of political workers on Tuesday.
Scott Morrison apologized directly to former staffer Brittany Higgins, who said she was raped in a minister’s office by a male colleague in 2019.
“I’m sorry to Ms Higgins for the horrific things that happened here,” Morrison said, detailing a decades-long culture of power abuse.
“But I am sorry for far more than that for all of those who came before Ms Higgins and endured the same.”
“Over many decades, an ecosystem, a culture, was perpetuated where bullying, abuse, harassment, and in some cases even violence, became normalized,” he said.
Higgins made his public debut in January of last year, igniting worldwide outrage. The alleged assault she suffered, as well as the way she was handled when she alerted her supervisors, astounded Australians.
