Category: Australia

‘Survival sex’, ‘mob justice’ and more: the first independent study of abuse in the Australian Defence Force is damning | The Conversation

This harrowing account of institutional military abuse draws on interviews with nearly 70 survivors and analyses every review and inquiry into military culture (35 in total) since the Vietnam War.

In the 1980s, women constituted 6.5% of the ADF. By the 1990s, that percentage had nearly doubled, and today, women make up around 20% of the Australian military. As gender demographics in the ADF shifted, sexual violence was increasingly deployed against women. Wadham and Connor argue the growing presence of women intensified the sexualised culture of the military to reiterate the “white, hypermasculinist” fraternity.

Date rape was a strategy for humiliating women and destroying their reputation. Sexual assault was often done by superiors, in view of other serving members, and always followed by a “code of silence, victim-blaming and discouragement from commanders and military police”. One interviewee sought support after being assaulted, but was warned by the military psychologist: “Defence doesn’t look fondly on people that see a psychologist.”

Constant threats and acts of violence from peers led some women to be coerced into “survival sex” in exchange for protection. In one of the saddest testimonies of the book, a young aviator was coerced into sleeping with her sergeant for years to prevent other abuse. “Then I found out that he was actually one of the people behind the stalking and sexual assault that had happened […] that went on for years.”

Sexual violence against women was underpinned by a deeply misogynist culture. Harassment of women was a “daily occurence” in the 1980s. By the 1990s, women reported practices such as “pornos in the mornos” – watching porn at morning tea in communal spaces. Harassment and intimidation continue to this day: in 2018, one woman reported she was “choosing not to eat, not to go out, not to do any sites” to avoid the executive officer constantly harassing her. When she reported him, she was told “I would have had a better case if I let it progress to rape”.

Wadham and Connor cite a 1993 book of cadet slang that included over 300 abusive terms that reduced women to literal sexual objects. These included: “a body to wank into, cum bucket, fuck bag, life support system for a cunt”. This language was part of daily training, imbued in the culture from the top down.

One veteran reported that her instructor “would talk about where to get the cheapest sex in Asia and how to get the daughter thrown in for a dollar”. The authors analyse the function of banter in the military, explaining that “lingo” works to “create a shared culture”, but can also be used to “target, exclude, belittle”. Sexualised “banter” was frequently used to alienate women and was “the first step in creating cultures of abuse and violence”.

Source: ‘Survival sex’, ‘mob justice’ and more: the first independent study of abuse in the Australian Defence Force is damning

Surrogates face higher risk of pregnancy complications, study finds | Surrogacy | The Guardian

Women who act as pregnancy surrogates appear to have a higher risk of health complications than those who carry their own babies, researchers have found.

The use of surrogates, or “gestational carriers”, has boomed in recent years, with figures for England and Wales revealing that the number of parental orders, which transfer legal parentage from the surrogate, rose from 117 in 2011 to 413 in 2020.

Source: Surrogates face higher risk of pregnancy complications, study finds | Surrogacy | The Guardian

Indigenous women in Australia are up to seven times more likely to be homicide victims: report | Australasian Lawyer

An Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) report has revealed that, compared with the national average, Indigenous women are up to seven times more likely to be the victims of homicides. Current or former intimate partners killed 72% of these women.

The AIC report – titled “Homicide of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women” – shared that 476 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women were homicide victims in the period between 1 July 1989 and 30 June 2023.

Nearly all victims from police-cleared incidents, specifically 97%, were killed by people they knew, the report stated.

Source: Indigenous women in Australia are up to seven times more likely to be homicide victims: report | Australasian Lawyer

I have made the near-impossible choice to terminate a pregnancy. Shaming women for it is cruel | Ruth Milne | The Guardian

Last week, Liberal MP Ben Hood introduced a bill to the South Australian parliament that would require anyone seeking an abortion after 27 weeks and six days to give birth. Joanna Howe, a law professor and anti-abortion advocate, supports Hood, asserting that women “overwhelmingly” want this bill to pass.

I find myself questioning who these women might be and wondering if any of them have faced the heart-wrenching decision to terminate a pregnancy in the third trimester.

After enduring two painful ectopic pregnancies and a miscarriage, I longed for my daughter Asha. My pregnancy was far from straightforward; I alternated between the excitement of becoming her mother and intense anxiety about everything that could go wrong.

When I experienced bleeding and had ultrasounds that consistently indicated Asha was smaller than she should be, I tried to raise the alarm. Initially, my doctors dismissed my concerns, convinced that I must have my dates wrong. But at 28 weeks, when Asha was the size of a 22-week-old foetus, they conducted tests.

Hearing the results still haunts me. Asha had something called triploidy, a genetic condition characterised by an extra set of chromosomes. The doctors were surprised she had survived so long, explaining that most babies with triploidy rarely made it past the first or second trimester.

I soon learned that Asha’s chances of survival weren’t good: few babies with triploidy live through birth, and if they do, most suffer and die within hours or days. Carrying a baby with triploidy also poses significant risks to the mother. This left me with two options: continue the pregnancy, knowing that Asha would likely die – in utero, at birth, or shortly thereafter. Or I could seek approval for a late-term abortion.

My doctors made it clear that only I could make the decision, but I would have to get permission from a panel of medical professionals if I chose to terminate.

Asha was 29 weeks along at this stage, and the thought of waiting for her to die inside me filled me with dread. Imagining her death during labour or shortly after was no better. Conversely, a termination meant choosing to end her life on my terms and taking responsibility for that. Both felt wrong. I was racked with guilt and uncertainty. It was unbearable.

A week later, I went into hospital for a termination. I had to be induced, and I gave birth to Asha, weighing only 600 grams. She was beautiful, like a delicate doll with my own lips and nose.

Ben Hood can’t possibly comprehend these experiences. He claims that we need to protect the most vulnerable from termination. He cites the 47 terminations conducted in South Australia over an 18-month period after the threshold of 22 weeks and 6 days. A closer look shows that 80% of these cases were due to risks to the mother’s health, while the remainder involved foetal anomalies.

If these women were forced to give birth, who would we be protecting?

Source: I have made the near-impossible choice to terminate a pregnancy. Shaming women for it is cruel | Ruth Milne | The Guardian

Giggle for Girls founder fights ruling that ‘sex is changeable’

Sall Grover is challenging a controversial Federal Court ruling that “sex is changeable”, after a judge found excluding a transgender woman from the women’s-only social media app Giggle for Girls amounted to indirect discrimination.

In a statement on Thursday, Giggle for Girls and Ms Grover said they would argue the court “misinterpreted the legal definition of ‘sex’ under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth), expanding it beyond biological realities, which could undermine protections meant for women and girls.”
The “appeal challenges a declaratory judgment that wrongfully finds our actions constituted ‘unlawful indirect discrimination’ based on gender identity”, the statement said.
There were mixed reactions to the polarising judgment handed down in August. Some legal experts said the ruling made it “clear cut that you cannot have spaces designated as women-only, where what you mean is cisgender women-only”. Others said discrimination law no longer offered women the protection it was once legislated to guarantee.
Experienced silk Stuart Wood AM KC has been brought onto the Giggle team, alongside Bridie Nolan, Anca Costin and Katherine Deves.

Source: Giggle for Girls founder fights ruling that ‘sex is changeable’

Statement on the decision of the Federal Court of Australia in the case of Roxanne Tickle v. Giggle for Girls Pty Ltd and Sally Grover | Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem

I am gravely concerned over the decision of the Federal Court of Australia in the case of Roxanne Tickle v. Giggle for Girls Pty Ltd and Sally Grover, which ruled that the exclusion of a male who identifies as a woman and is recognized as a female under the law from a female-only social media platform constitutes unjustified indirect discrimination.

The ruling demonstrates the concrete consequences that result when gender identity is allowed to supplant sex – and override women’s rights to female only services and spaces.

Source: 20240904-stm-sr-vawg-australia-en.pdf

Supreme Court judge on the biases that shape impostor syndrome – Lawyers Weekly

At the 2024 Minds Count Lecture, following a moving speech by High Court Justice Jacqueline Gleeson, Justice Ierodiaconou shared a vulnerable moment of impostor syndrome she experienced in the days after she was appointed to Victoria’s highest court.

Despite not looking anything like the colleague she attended with, a very senior barrister approached and told him it was “really nice to meet your daughter”. When corrected and told Justice Ierodiaconou was just appointed, the barrister followed up with, “Oh, you’re a magistrate?”

The blunder did not end there, with the barrister then having assumed that Justice Ierodiaconou must have been a County Court judge.

“While this was happening, I felt astonished, but I also started to think, is it something I’m wearing? I’m a very approachable person, and I thought, am I being too friendly? Am I not displaying sufficient gravitas?

“Then the academic side of my brain kicked in, and I thought, ‘I’m being stereotyped here’. I don’t know [if] it was because of my age, my ethnicity, my gender, but I had to step back out of myself because it was starting to make me feel like I don’t belong [and] maybe I’m not cut out to be a judicial officer,” Justice Ierodiaconou said.

Source: Supreme Court judge on the biases that shape impostor syndrome – Lawyers Weekly

Pesutto admits incorrectly linking controversial rally with Ku Klux Klan – Lawyers Weekly

Under questioning by Deeming’s counsel Sue Chrysanthou SC, Pesutto admitted he made a mistake when he told media Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull had a “rap sheet of associations”, including to neo-Nazi and former head of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke.

On three occasions with media prior to a bid to have Deeming ousted from the Liberal Party, Pesutto made the Ku Klux Klan comment.

When asked whether his press was being monitored by a member of his team as it occurred, Pesutto said they “typically do”, but “they didn’t pick up that error … [it] was pointed out to me later that day”.

“Your Honour, I was informed by one of my part-time staff members later in the day … that I had misspoken,” Pesutto told the court.

Chrysanthou said that by making the association and mentioning Keen-Minshull’s alleged “rap sheet”, Pesutto had been suggesting to media and the public that Deeming was aware of this link.

Chrysanthou then put to Pesutto that it was “dishonest” of him to not publicly announce his error and to instead “let it fester”.

Pesutto did not accept this, telling the court it was “pretty obvious once all the material was out there that that was the case” and he insisted he did not repeat the error once it was pointed out to him.

Later in the cross-examination, Chrysanthou put to Pesutto that his office was giving media parts of a draft dossier that he would seek to use in his bid to have Deeming expelled from the party.

Pesutto said his media team was often communicating with journalists as part of its job and accepted that while they were talking to journalists during the day in question, he did not accept the contention it was to leak the dossier.

The hearing continues.

Source: Pesutto admits incorrectly linking controversial rally with Ku Klux Klan – Lawyers Weekly

Judgment revisited after pronoun complaint – Lawyers Weekly

Over the 2023–24 reporting year, Judicial Conduct Commissioner Michael Boylan said there were just over 60 complaints, including one that alleged an unnamed judicial officer “did not accommodate a person’s position about pronouns” in their written reasons for judgment.

After being asked for a response, the judicial officer reviewed their reasons and drafted an amended judgment with the revisions.

“In those circumstances, I was satisfied that further consideration of the complaint would be unjustified,” Boylan said.

Court’s accommodation of pronouns over past 12 months

Although the report never identified the judicial officer or the court, a review of the state’s published judgments revealed several instances in which other officers accommodated a party’s preferred pronouns.

In VWA v OMH, after a child known only as “Z” requested that pronouns not be used, the tribunal “respected this request … and the tribunal’s orders are reflective of this wherever possible”.

In the CIT v Department of Human Services judgment, which concerned explicit details of a child’s genitalia, the tribunal made a specific mention that it did “not mean to cause distress, or be disrespectful of” the child’s preferred pronouns.

For the judgment of R v Soergel last July, the District Court of South Australia said while it had to refer to female pronouns – as this was the case at the time of the offending – it mentioned the person in question had begun using male pronouns.

Source: Judgment revisited after pronoun complaint – Lawyers Weekly

Law Council of Australia recognises positive duty to fight sexual harassment | Australasian Lawyer

The Council’s leaders supported the approach under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth), which made it a positive duty to take reasonable measures to eliminate sexual harassment as much as possible and which introduced obligations for the legal profession to actively address the problem.

The Council’s directors recognised that the profession should move away from traditional power structures and should address underlying contributors if it wishes to eliminate sexual harassment and discrimination.

Those interested can read the statement of the Council.

Source: Law Council of Australia recognises positive duty to fight sexual harassment | Australasian Lawyer