The brutal cost of a one-size-fits-all shooshing machine |
Long time coming. Long, long time. For decades, workplace victims of sexual violence, of bullying, of harassment, have been silenced with a tool used by business and government alike, the non-disclosure agreement (NDA). It's a one-size-fits-all shooshing machine.
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We all hate being silenced - and in this case we should all rage against the machine.
That is especially true if the perpetrator is a rainmaker, someone valuable to the company, to the organisation, to government. Take AMP's behaviour when it knew its big money man was behaving badly. Zero action until the heat got hot. And we have to thank Julia Szlakowski, who bravely took on AMP and spoke out to protect all of us.
In so many instances, appalling behaviour is rolled over, from one episode of harassment to the next. The rainmakers keep making it rain so the employers just keep on paying to silence women.
The good news? We are seeing the beginning of the end. In a breathtaking turn of events, the Minister for Veterans Affairs Matt Keogh confirmed a leave pass this week to any former veteran who wants to speak truth to power. He confirmed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with the Commonwealth would not be enforced for the inquiry into sexual violence in the military, to begin later this year.
Let me introduce you to Julia Delaforce. In 2010, she was sexually harassed at knifepoint on a NSW military base by a senior male corporal. She was then forced, by her superiors, to drive her assailant home. That's all on the public record.
She complained to her bosses and then she put in a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission. But the out-of-court settlement meant Delaforce could not speak out against the treatment she'd received in the military. She stopped working. She still suffers from complex post-traumatic stress disorder.
But there is one thing which kept Delaforce focused - and that was her determination to help others speak out. In 2025, she was finally released from the terms of her non-disclosure agreement. She........