Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has apologised to a former political staffer who has alleged she was raped by a senior colleague in a minister's office in parliament.
Brittany Higgins said she had feared losing her job after the 2019 incident, and had little support from her bosses.
Ms Higgins, 26, gave a TV interview on Monday that has prompted shock and outrage over her treatment.
Mr Morrison apologised for the way Ms Higgins' complaint was handled.
He said parliament's professional standards and culture would be reviewed, saying: "I hope Brittany's call is a wake-up call for all of us."
"It shatters me that still, in this day and age, that a young woman can find herself in the vulnerable situation that she was in that was not of her doing," he told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.
The matter is now under a renewed police investigation.
What does Ms Higgins allege?
She said she was offered her a lift home by an older male colleague at the end of a night out, but instead he took her to Parliament House.
Ms Higgins said she was drunk and feel asleep in Defence Industry Minister Linda Reynolds' office, before waking to find the man sexually assaulting her.
"I woke up mid-rape essentially," she told Network Ten. "I started crying... I told him to stop."
She said the man left immediately afterwards, and she wasn't offered any assistance by security guards on her way out of parliament.
In the days following, Ms Higgins said she felt Ms Reynolds' office aimed to "manage" the situation, downplaying her trauma.
"It felt like I became... it immediately became a political problem," she said.
Ms Higgins said she was told by Ms Reynolds that she would be supported if she pursued a police complaint, but she ultimately chose not to because she believed it would jeopardise her career.
She said she was also pulled into a meeting with Ms Reynolds in the room where the alleged attack took place.
"There was a loop happening in my mind of this trauma that I'd just sort of come to terms with and I thought it was unfathomable that they would put me in such a place again," she said.
Ms Higgins said her alleged attacker was removed from the minister's office.
She worked for another minister in Mr Morrison's Liberal Party before quitting politics.
What did the PM say?
Mr Morrison apologised specifically for the meeting with Ms Reynolds in the office where Ms Higgins alleges the rape took place.
He said such an event "should not have happened", saying it would spark a review of the complaints procedure in parliament.
The prime minister also announced a review into the standards and culture of parliament, saying problems crossed over party lines.
"I want to make sure that any young woman working in this place is as safe as possible," he said.
The case has refocused public scrutiny on the treatment of women in Australian politics.
Last year an ABC investigation aired allegations of inappropriate behaviour by ministers within the conservative government.
At the time, Mr Morrison was also criticised for interrupting a female minister who was responding to a question about what it's like to be a woman in parliament.
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2021-02-16 00:54:00Z
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