Ministerial offices are filled with inexperienced advisors who have an "upstairs, downstairs" two-tiered approach to the public service and government with themselves on top, warns former Liberal political staffer Brittany Higgins.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Ms Higgins, who rose to prominence after coming forward a year ago with an account of being raped in the defence minister's office, and fellow advocate for survivors of sexual assault Grace Tame were peppered with questions about whether they would enter politics following their National Press Club addresses on Wednesday.
Neither were inclined for political candidacy at present, but Ms Higgins expressed strong concerns about the state of ministerial offices after having worked for two cabinet ministers.
"The public don't realise the role of advisors that they play in politics and it's a really pivotal role," she said when asked about the state of politics in Australia.
"I was personally shocked when, for example, the advisor who runs our F-35 program, which is our jets, has never been in the military and is I think still under the age of 30."
READ MORE:
Advisors play a critical role in Australian politics, but the induction process was missing during her entrance to the insular world of ministerial staffers when she was "very young".
Ms Higgins described the ministerial office as very tight knit teams of about 12 people. On average they tend to be under the age of 40, she said.
That role "needs reform" and a more amendable relationship with the public service, she said.
"There needs to be more of an induction training, more of a cohesive relationship with the public service instead of this kind of two-tiered system where it goes ministerial staffers [then] public service."
"There is this very upstairs-downstairs kind of relationship between the two at the moment and I don't know exactly when that came into play but it's definitely something that's present at the moment and that I think is fundamentally problematic for Australia."
Ms Higgins was 24 at the time of the alleged rape incident, just months into the job. A man has pleaded not guilty to charges related to that incident.
She claimed she felt forced to choose between reporting the assault to the police or keeping her job. The staffer continued work for then defence minister Linda Reynolds before moving to the office of the employment minister Michaelia Cash, before resigning in February last year.
Her allegations rocked parliament and sparked an inquiry into parliamentary workplace culture by former sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins.
The sweeping investigation found one in three parliamentary staff had experienced sexual harassment and made 28 recommendations.