The Attorney-General commends the Legal Profession Board of Tasmania for their work to address sexual harassment in the legal profession within Tasmania.
Attorney General, Elise Archer, said the Board has been leading cultural change in the legal profession in Tasmania in the last 12 months, progressing a range of initiatives including a recently launched reporting tool, ‘Speak Safely’, which enables individuals to report sexual harassment confidentially and anonymously.
“Importantly, the online portal is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and is designed to make reporting incidents of harassment easy, allowing the reporter to ask questions if they wish, and decide if and how they want to be contacted about their report,” the Attorney-General said.
“Access to information submitted through the portal is tightly controlled and data is held securely and protected by encryption.
“The portal allows anyone reporting sexual harassment to engage with trauma-trained staff from the Board’s Response Team, if they wish to do so. Staff in this team are specially trained to receive and respond to reports of sexual harassment.
“With the consent of the reporter, the Board is able to investigate complaints about individual lawyers and take disciplinary action, where appropriate.
“Tasmania is only the third Australian jurisdiction to implement this system and I congratulate the Board on showing leadership in this important area.”
As part of a wider strategy which combines proactive and reactive measures to address sexual harassment, the Board has also:
*convened a Sexual Harassment Working Group which brings together leaders from across the legal profession in Tasmania;
*listed sexual harassment as a standing agenda item at each Board meeting; and
*developed operational procedures, facts sheets and a policy statement in support of addressing this issue.
The Attorney-General also said, while there is limited local data available, studies elsewhere have shown that sexual harassment is a significant issue for the profession with an International Bar Association 2019 global survey finding that Australian legal professionals report a higher rate of sexual harassment than the global average.
“Forty-seven per cent of Australian female respondents indicated they had been sexually harassed (compared with 37 per cent globally) and 13 per cent of male respondents (7 per cent globally),” the Attorney-General said.
“Sexual harassment is unacceptable in any workplace and the legal profession should be leading by example in responding to this issue. While there is always more we can do to ensure people are not subjected to sexual harassment, I am pleased to see the commitment and leadership demonstrated by the Board on this issue, and I look forward to continuing to work with them on further initiatives in future.”
