Northern Victoria MP Georgie Purcell has spoken about being sexually harassed while in parliament.
Speaking in state parliament in support of the Restricting Non-disclosure Agreements (Sexual Harassment at Work) Bill 2025 on Thursday 20 November, the Kyneton-based MP said there have been multiple instances when she was sexually harassed in her working life.
“When I moved on to working in a pub when I was 18 years old, I dreaded clearing the glasses during happy hour, knowing that I would be groped, pulled onto laps and receive demeaning and sexualised comments,” she said.
“Once I was even followed out to my car by a customer who threatened me after I turned down his advances.
“In that workplace I was powerless because we could not upset the regulars in a small country town.”
Ms Purcell said in her first year as a staffer in parliament, she again was sexually harassed.
“I will never forget in those early months when someone came into my office for a discussion and I bent over to get something from the fridge and he remarked to me, in my member of Parliament’s office, ‘If you do that again, I won’t be responsible for what happens next’,” she said.
“It really has made me reflect, perhaps naively, ahead of this debate today that I thought I would be safe from this treatment when I became a member of parliament as well, but that just has not been the reality and that has not been the case.”
Ms Purcell said she faced scrutiny by colleagues after reporting the harassment.
“I reported sexual harassment in this building as a member of parliament … the immediate questions were: ‘What did she expect? Look how she dresses. Look at the tattoos. Look at her past. You can’t sexually harass the stripper.’ I heard the whispers … I know the slut shaming far too well,” Ms Purcell said.
“Members of this place are not beyond it, and we need to reflect on that today as well as we move forward and do this important piece of legislation. There is an ongoing commentary for many women in this building that implies things would be different for us if we conducted ourselves in a different way.”
The bill was introduced to address the misuse of non-disclosure agreements that have been used to silence victims of sexual harassment in the workplace, to allow victims to speak out without fear of retribution or legal consequences.
If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual harassment, support is available. Call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) for confidential help.
