In March 2019 a bubbly ambitious 25-year-old Brittany Higgins was allegedly raped in the office of Australia’s Defence minister. Now in October 2022 as she seeks justice, we get to bear witness to the legal system raping her again. This time it’s not on a couch, it’s in the seat of ‘justice’. It’s brutal to watch.
It has taken bravery for Brittany to tell her story. To lie naked before us all. Every woman who has been raped who hasn’t stepped forward (which is most of us), has silently cheered and held our breath. We know the cost of courage. We know that sometimes it’s easier to bear the shame of the trauma than speak up. We know what happens to girls who speak up. They get taught a lesson. They get broken.
This girl shone the light on a culture of sexual misconduct, assault, and rape that lies deep at the heart of Australian politics. She broke the silence. She gathered the might of a country behind her. A country that for the most had the good sense to believe her. A country that was outraged that this alleged assault had happened to a vulnerable young woman in a setting that should be the gold star example of a safe workplace.
I resent having to use the word ‘alleged’. Every time we use that word we tell the victim that we do not believe her. That she must revisit her trauma. That she must prove not just that the rape took place, that she is of good character. Because only ‘good’ girls are believed. And only ‘good’ girls will be protected because ‘bad’ girls can’t be raped. The legitimacy of her assault is contingent not on the guilt or innocence of the accused, but on the fact she is or is not a liar. It is on her character. Whether she was wearing underwear. Whether she was ambitious. Whether this was all a long game to keep her job.
You want to know why women don’t come forward to report rape and sexual assault? This is the reason: Women are judged, shamed, blamed, and disbelieved. We allow our legal system to perpetuate the trauma. I am a mother of girls Brittany’s age. I imagine this happening to them. My girls are strong, and they have support, and while I know they would have a chance at surviving the trauma of a rape, I don’t know if they would survive this. The trauma of the legal system. The public shaming. The character assassination.
What is happening to Ms Higgins right now is so wrong. Why are we letting this happen? Where is our outrage? Who is coming to HER defence?
It is the brutal assault of a patriarchy that wants us to know it can drag us unconscious to a couch and fuck us any time it wants. That tells us we are to blame. That wants to tell us we are worthless. That we have imagined this. That it didn’t happen, or that we are crazy.
It’s what happens when you ask for help from the same system that perpetuated the harm. A system that rewards entitlement, enshrines privilege, and dares to call itself ‘justice’.
We treat victims of property and financial crime with more respect than a rape victim. When a bank is robbed it is never an ‘alleged’ robbery. It is an alleged assailant. Why then must we say ‘alleged rape’? Why can’t it be an ‘alleged’ accused? It might seem insignificant but a bank never has to prove it was robbed. It doesn’t have to answer to a social morality about its choices. No-one says the bank has money so it was complicit. The bank gave consent.
A woman is not a bank. But it’s never been clearer that this system has not been set up to protect our interests.
And in my opinion, for that harm, that failure to provide protection and care, there is no defence.
Rape is rape.
And Brittany Higgins, for speaking up. For enduring the unendurable.
For staying strong. For being the one who won’t go away. The voice that won’t be silenced. She takes us all there.
She is a hero.
And that is not alleged.
It is proven.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
