In June 2025, the Australian Human Rights Commission released one of the most significant reports on workplace sexual harassment (WSH) since Respect@Work: Speaking from Experience.
This report doesn’t just outline policy failures. It amplifies the voices of over 300 people who’ve lived through workplace sexual harassment — many of whom are least likely to be heard, protected, or believed.
From casual hospitality workers to First Nations community advocates, from queer refugees to neurodivergent professionals, the message was resounding: the system is still failing — and not equally.
For HR, legal, and executive leaders, this report is a wake-up call: policies and training are not enough. Compliance is not enough. Culture must change — and workplaces are where that change must begin.
Let’s explore what the Speaking from Experience report found — and what your workplace must do next.
🎯 1. The Shift: From “Compliance” to a Positive Duty of Care
Since the 2022 introduction of the Positive Duty under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth), employers are no longer expected to wait for a complaint before acting on harassment. You now have a legal obligation to prevent it — just like any other workplace hazard.
The report reinforces this shift. Victim-survivors spoke not just of incidents of harassment, but of workplaces that looked the other way, policies that failed them, and systems that were traumatising or irrelevant to their lived reality.
“Talking is lovely, but action is what gets it done. Action is what creates the change.”
— Culturally and racially marginalised white-collar worker
Your positive duty is more than a legal threshold — it’s the minimum standard of care. And meeting it means embedding proactive prevention, not reactive bureaucracy.
📣 2. What the Report Heard: Harassment Happens Where Systems Fail
Sexual harassment doesn’t occur in isolation. It happens where discrimination, power imbalance and structural exclusion thrive.
Key findings:
- 1 in 3 workers have experienced sexual harassment in the past five years (AHRC, 2022).
- That number jumps to 56% for First Nations people, 48% for people with disability, and 70% for intersex people.
- Contributors described harassment that was racialised, ableist, gendered — or all at once.
- Systems often treated them as “complaints”, not people.
- Many feared job loss, visa cancellation, homelessness, or stigma if they reported.
“They think, ‘oh well, that’s just part of queer culture’ — so it becomes really challenging to navigate. There’s not a lot of literacy around those nuances.”
— LGBTQ+ white-collar worker
Intersectionality is not a buzzword. It’s a reality for many employees — and your response needs to reflect it.
🧩 3. Where Current Systems Fall Short
The report mapped common failures across sectors and industries. Here’s what needs urgent attention:
a) Insecure Work = Unsafe Work
People in casual, visa-dependent, or contract roles were far less likely to report — and far more likely to be targeted.
What this means for employers:
- You must account for power dynamics in your risk assessment.
- “At-will” employment structures often silence workers.
- Safe workplaces require stable, fair, and inclusive work conditions.
b) Policies Are Too Complex — or Missing
Many workers didn’t even know what counted as harassment, let alone how to report it.
What this means:
- Policies must be in plain English, translated, and accessible to people with disability.
- Don’t bury rights in 50-page manuals. Make help easy to find — and use.
c) Complaint Systems Are Re-traumatising
Workers described investigative processes that treated them as suspects, isolated them from teams, or punished them for speaking up.
Implications:
- Trauma-informed systems aren’t optional — they’re necessary.
- “Neutrality” can be harmful if it erases power dynamics.
“You become a complaint, rather than a person.”
— Neurodivergent worker
🛠️ 4. The Recommendations: What Needs to Change — and Fast
The report outlines 11 core recommendations, all grounded in lived experience and supported by extensive research. Here’s what your workplace should be watching (and doing).
🔑 RECOMMENDATION 1: Fund and partner with community-specific orgs
Invest in culturally appropriate, sector-specific education and outreach, including:
- Multicultural centres
- LGBTQIA+ services
- Disability and youth organisations
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups
What this means for employers: Partner locally. Don’t assume your in-house materials cover the diversity of your workforce.
🔁 RECOMMENDATION 2: Launch a national media campaign on WSH
We need a collective shift in what workplace safety means — and who it’s for.
What this means for employers: Use your internal comms channels to amplify messaging. Make harassment prevention as visible as your fire drills.
📊 RECOMMENDATION 3: Invest in intersectional data
Many workers don’t fit neat demographic categories — but most reporting systems do.
What this means: Update your data systems to collect — and act on — intersectional insights.
🧾 RECOMMENDATION 4: Amend the Workplace Gender Equality Act
Incorporate targets and reporting for LGBTIQA+, First Nations, migrant, and disabled workers.
For you: Don’t wait for legislation to do the right thing. Start tracking diversity beyond gender — and tie it to real outcomes, not vanity metrics.
👩🏽⚖️ RECOMMENDATION 5–11: Structural legal reforms
These include:
- Civil penalties for breaches of Positive Duty
- Amendments to limit non-disclosure agreements (NDAs)
- Trauma-informed restorative justice pilots
- Greater inter-agency information sharing
What this means for employers now:
- Review your use of NDAs — are they silencing, or supporting?
- Prepare for future penalties — the Positive Duty has teeth.
- Consider offering restorative pathways — not just legal defences.
📚 5. From Law to Culture: The Real Work Begins Now
The biggest lesson from Speaking from Experience is that legal compliance is not the same as cultural safety.
Laws can tell us where the line is — but culture tells us whether people feel safe to speak, to stay, or to lead.
“I didn’t even know I had rights. No one ever told me.”
— Migrant hospitality worker
As a workplace, your culture is shaped not just by your policy — but by:
- Who you promote
- Who you protect
- What you ignore
- And how you respond when the cameras aren’t rolling
🎤 6. Amplify, Don’t Assume: Why Lived Experience Must Lead
The most powerful insight from this report?
People want to contribute to change. They are tired of speaking into silence. They are ready to lead, if we listen.
“I’m proud that I didn’t give up.”
— Neurodivergent office worker
Your role as a leader is not to have all the answers — it’s to create structures where the right voices are heard, and valued.
That means:
- Involving victim-survivors in policy design
- Paying peer educators and cultural advisors for their time
- Creating feedback loops with those most affected
- Letting go of control when community leads best
✅ 7. What You Can Do Next: A Capyble Checklist
Whether you’re just starting or deep in your DFV and harassment prevention journey, here’s a roadmap based on Speaking from Experience:
✔ Audit your policies through an intersectional lens
Are they accessible, trauma-informed, and practical for diverse workers?
✔ Review your data collection and diversity metrics
Can you see who’s at risk — and why? Are outcomes improving?
✔ Partner with local, culturally-specific services
Don’t reinvent — collaborate with experts already working in your community.
✔ Train managers in trauma-informed response
People rarely report to HR first. Equip your front-line leaders.
✔ Make support visible
Put posters in bathrooms, links on intranets, and hotline cards in pay packets.
✔ Reassess your use of NDAs
Are they silencing people — or protecting healing?
✔ Offer flexible, person-centred support
That might mean paid leave, role changes, or restorative processes — not just procedural compliance.
🔐 8. Final Thought: From Quiet Systems to Brave Leadership
The Speaking from Experience report is not just a summary of harm. It’s a blueprint for justice.
It reminds us that harassment doesn’t start with bad apples — it thrives in quiet systems. In unchecked power. In cultures of complicity.
And it doesn’t end with one training or one resignation. It ends when workplaces — and the people who lead them — decide to do things differently.
At Capyble, we believe workplaces can be sites of safety, healing and accountability.
But only if we make them so.
The time for awareness is over. The time for action is now.
Sources:
- Australian Human Rights Commission (2025). Speaking from Experience: What needs to change to address workplace sexual harassment.
- Australian Human Rights Commission (2020). Respect@Work: National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces.
- Time for Respect Survey, 2022.
