The 2025 Speaking from Experience report is more than a summary of workplace sexual harassment — it’s a mandate. For HR teams, legal counsel, and executives, it delivers a clear-eyed message: the status quo is broken. And organisations that want to stay compliant — and trusted — must do more than react. They must reimagine the systems that enable or prevent harm.
Released by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), this landmark report centres the voices of people who’ve lived through workplace sexual harassment — particularly those who face multiple, overlapping forms of discrimination.
This blog is your practical guide to the report’s findings: what’s failing, what needs to change, and what your workplace must do next to protect your people — and your reputation.
📣 What Is the Speaking from Experience Report?
The report is the outcome of a national inquiry into workplace sexual harassment, with a deliberate focus on lived experience. Over 300 victim-survivors, across industries and identities, shared what it means to navigate unsafe work — and unsafe systems.
It builds on the 2020 Respect@Work report, but moves deeper: into the experiences of First Nations workers, migrants, LGBTQIA+ people, workers with disability, and those in insecure jobs.
The key takeaway? Systems aren’t neutral. They reflect — and often reinforce — the inequalities already at play.
🚨 Why This Report Matters for Employers
Workplace sexual harassment is not just bad behaviour — it’s a predictable, preventable safety risk.
- Under WHS law, employers must eliminate or minimise psychosocial hazards — including sexual harassment.
- Under the Sex Discrimination Act, the Positive Duty introduced in 2022 requires employers to take proactive steps to prevent harassment before it happens.
- Inaction is no longer a legal defence. Nor is ignorance.
The Speaking from Experience report makes it crystal clear: if your systems aren’t trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and designed around risk — they are not compliant.
🧭 What the Report Found — and What It Means for You
1. Sexual Harassment Is Widespread — and Disproportionate
Everyone is at risk — but some groups are targeted more, and believed less.
Key data:
- 33% of all workers experienced sexual harassment in the past 5 years.
- 56% of First Nations people reported workplace sexual harassment.
- 70% of intersex people, 48% of people with disability, and 57% of LGBTQ+ workers had similar experiences.
- Insecure workers — like casuals or visa holders — were particularly vulnerable.
“I knew if I spoke up, I’d lose my job — not them.”
— Hospitality worker on a student visa
What this means: Risk isn’t equally distributed. Your prevention approach must account for vulnerability — not just visibility.
2. Disclosure Is Rare — Silence Is Common
Many contributors never reported what happened to them. Why?
- Fear of losing work
- Lack of visa security
- Cultural stigma or isolation
- Past experiences of being ignored or punished
Some didn’t even realise what they’d experienced was unlawful — a clear failure of education and communication.
“I thought it was just the price of being queer in a corporate space.”
— LGBTQIA+ office worker
What this means: If your DFV or harassment system relies on self-reporting — it’s missing most of the risk.
3. Reporting Systems Are Often Unsafe
Even when people do speak up, systems fail them.
Common problems:
- Investigations were retraumatising or invalidating
- HR aligned with management instead of survivors
- NDAs were used to silence, not support
- People were ostracised after reporting
“After I reported, I had to sit next to him every day for a year. Nothing changed — except I stopped trusting anyone.”
— Admin assistant, local government
What this means: Legal compliance alone won’t protect you. Your systems must centre dignity and safety — not just documentation.
🔁 What’s Not Working in Current Practice
The report highlights system-wide failures that many workplaces unknowingly replicate:
🔹 Over-reliance on policies
Most workplaces have a harassment policy. But few make it accessible, relevant, or empowering — especially to casual, migrant, or neurodiverse staff.
🔹 Poor access to support
Many workplaces point staff to EAP — which is rarely culturally safe or equipped for trauma-related support.
🔹 Confusing processes
Survivors often face bureaucratic, opaque, and intimidating complaints systems.
🔹 Little follow-through
Even when misconduct is found, consequences are uneven — especially for senior staff.
What this means: Goodwill is not enough. You must review every element — policy, training, reporting, support — through a survivor-informed lens.
📊 The 11 Recommendations — and How to Apply Them
The AHRC lays out 11 key recommendations. Here’s what they mean for your workplace in practice:
1. Fund and Partner with Community-Based Organisations
Why? Generalist HR or legal advice is not enough. Marginalised communities need support that understands their context.
Your action: Partner with DFV services, First Nations support orgs, LGBTQIA+ experts, and disability advocacy networks. Budget for this.
2. Run a National Awareness Campaign
Why? Sexual harassment is still widely misunderstood — especially among young, migrant, or insecure workers.
Your action: Don’t wait for the national campaign. Launch your own internal version. Posters, videos, briefings, and FAQs all help.
3. Collect Intersectional Data
Why? Risk varies across identities — and you can’t manage what you don’t measure.
Your action: Expand data collection beyond gender. Track outcomes by visa status, disability, age, and cultural identity.
4. Amend the Workplace Gender Equality Act
Why? Current metrics exclude many at-risk groups.
Your action: Start now. Include sexual orientation, disability, cultural background, and employment status in your internal equity reviews.
5. Legally Limit the Use of NDAs
Why? NDAs often silence survivors and protect abusers.
Your action: Review every NDA use. Ask: is this supporting healing, or silencing risk?
6. Introduce Civil Penalties for Positive Duty Breaches
Why? Right now, breaches have limited consequences.
Your action: Assume penalties will arrive. Audit your compliance now — don’t wait.
7–11. Build Trauma-Informed and Restorative Approaches
- Launch pilot restorative justice programs
- Improve inter-agency data sharing
- Design accessible complaint pathways
- Build mechanisms for lived experience feedback
Your action: Consult experts in trauma-informed practice. Hire lived experience consultants. Rethink complaints processes from the survivor’s point of view.
🛠 Your 2025 Employer Action Plan
If you’re wondering how to respond — here’s a roadmap.
✔ Step 1: Update Your Risk Assessment
Map workplace sexual harassment as a psychosocial hazard. Include insecure workers, cultural risks, and power dynamics.
✔ Step 2: Review Your Complaint System
Can someone report without being retraumatised? Without fearing job loss? Without their boss knowing?
✔ Step 3: Train Leaders in Power and Prevention
Include bystander training, trauma-informed care, and intersectionality. Refresh regularly.
✔ Step 4: Shift from Reactive to Preventive
Move beyond responding to complaints. Design systems that reduce risk before harm occurs.
✔ Step 5: Embed Accountability
Tie leadership KPIs to culture and conduct. Set public targets for improvement. Include metrics in board reports.
🔐 Final Thought: From Compliance to Culture
Speaking from Experience is more than a report. It’s a reflection.
A mirror held up to our workplaces, our systems, and the assumptions we’ve let guide us for too long.
And it asks us — as employers, as leaders, as people — to do better.
Not because of legal pressure. But because people deserve workplaces that are fair, safe, and just.
At Capyble, we believe compliance is the floor — not the ceiling. The Speaking from Experience report makes one thing clear: change is not optional.
The only question is how soon you’ll begin.
