Prime Minister Scott Morrison is under increasing pressure to address what’s been described as a toxic culture in Australia’s Parliament, as police investigate an alleged rape in the 1980s involving a politician who is now a Cabinet minister.
The Australian Federal Police said at the weekend it had received a complaint in relation to a historic sexual assault and would be liaising with relevant state authorities. The alleged victim killed herself in June last year and details of the claims have been sent by her friends to two senators and the prime minister’s office.
Morrison was already under pressure over the workplace culture at Parliament House after a former government media adviser, Brittany Higgins, said last month that after a night of drinking with colleagues in 2019 she was raped by a fellow staffer in a minister’s office. Several female lawmakers have complained about a male-dominated and disempowering culture in Canberra.