ABC unable to confirm how many sexual misconduct complaints it received over half a decade
As Australia’s national broadcaster published reports and documentaries on sexual assault, it did not maintain centralised sexual assault and harassment records of its own
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is unable to confirm how many of its staff submitted reports of sexual assault or sexual harassment in the workplace over a period spanning half a decade because it didn’t keep centralised workplace records, a Freedom of Information inquiry has revealed.
The revelations come just a few months after the ABC unveiled a major investigation entitled “Rough Justice: How police are failing survivors of sexual assault”, which was scathing of NSW Police for not keeping records about why reported sexual assaults were withdrawn by victims.
The story reported: “This is despite officers being required to record a reason — such as “insufficient evidence”, “complaint withdrawn”, “deceased”, etc — by NSW Police’s own crime recording standards.”
“It is the only jurisdiction that does not have this data.”
In the national broadcaster's response, sent earlier this month after a December 2019 request under freedom of information laws seeking information about workplace sexual harassment, the ABC acknowledged it was unable to determine how many complaints of sexual assault, sexual harassment or sexual misconduct had been received by the organisation over the five year period from 2015 to 2019 because documentation of relevant workplace records “did not exist”.
For the same reason, the ABC could not advise whether any complaints alleged a staff member was responsible for any incidents of sexual misconduct, or if any complaints had been received alleging sexual assault or harassment from an external third party.
The broadcaster was also unable to advise how many times disciplinary action had been taken in response to any complaints of sexual harassment and sexual assault, or explain the nature of any such actions taken.
The admissions from the ABC come months after the broadcaster’s premiere of Silent No More, a documentary focused on “hidden epidemic of workplace sexual harassment” created in partnership with Southern Pictures and Tracey Spicer, who asked survivors of sexual assault to contact her in the wake of the late 2017 reporting in the United States on the abuses perpetrated by Harvey Weinstein, claiming she was investigating “offenders in the media industry.”
One month later, reflecting on Australia’s media industry, Spicer wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald: “When #metoo prompted millions in the US to share their stories, I reflected upon the failure of generations of executives to clean up our industry here. And the reticence of reporters to investigate their own.”
In responding to the freedom of information request, a representative for the ABC acknowledged that the organisation had not created a centralised internal workplace complaints database until October 2019.
"I have been advised that the ABC does not maintain a database exclusively for sexual harassment, sexual assault or sexual misconduct complaints," Pamela Longstaff, the ABC’s Company Secretary and FOI Coordinator, wrote.
"The ABC’s internal complaints database, Case Tracker, was created on 31 October 2019, and holds information on sexual harassment complaints in addition to allegations of other types of misconduct."
"Relevant ABC staff members have advised that prior to this, the ABC did not have a centralised database for the recording of misconduct allegations."
Two pages of screenshots of the ABC’s newly-created internal complaints database—which were redacted to protect the privacy of the individuals involved—show that one complaint of serious misconduct was filed under the title of "sexual harassment" midway through 2019, on July 26.
The database also contained seven mentions of bullying incidents recorded since October 2019.
It took the ABC almost four months to respond to the freedom of information request—four times longer than the 30-day timeframe stipulated under Australia's freedom of information laws.
Juliana Walsh, the ABC's FOI and Corporate Governance Advisor, acknowledged that the inquiry was delayed due to the ABC having limited resources to deal with Freedom of Information requests, writing in February:
"It has taken some time to acquire documents related to the scope of your request and unfortunately we have resourcing restraints in this area."