Australian Border Force’s marine unit is rife with “inappropriate workplace behaviours including sexual harassment and bullying”, meaning female officers are not safe, according to the human rights watchdog.
The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), in a secret report for the ABF, revealed that in the marine unit 100% of women who responded to a survey “witnessed sex discrimination, sexual … and/or sex-based harassment” and 78% had personally experienced that behaviour.
This included “bullying, sexually suggestive and sexist comments and incidents of sexual harassment described by officers as ‘serious’”.
The report by the sex discrimination commissioner, Anna Cody, demanded “immediate intervention” and called for border force leadership “at all levels … [to] be held accountable for addressing reported and known incidents of inappropriate workplace behaviours”.
The ABF commissioner, Michael Outram, responded by telling staff the reported behaviours were “confronting and disturbing and run counter to our ABF values”. He promised to crack down on unlawful conduct.
The marine unit report is part of a five-year partnership with the AHRC to improve workplace culture and gender equity in the ABF. It was handed to ABF’s top brass in late March and was never intended to be made public.
A summary of the report, seen by Guardian Australia, said there was “an urgent need to prevent inappropriate behaviour in the marine unit” with “much work to be done” to ensure “a safe and respectful environment for all officers regardless of their gender, sexuality, cultural or racial background or disability”.
Despite the marine unit’s culture “slowly improving”, the report found that “significant improvement is still required” in particular due to the “normalisation of inappropriate behaviours [and] cliques”.
“The marine unit remains male-dominated and there is limited cultural and racial diversity,” the report found. Women comprise 10% of the marine unit compared with 44% of the entire ABF.
The report warned of a “high prevalence of inappropriate workplace behaviours”, which “pose a significant safety risk for officers and an institutional risk for the ABF”.
“Women continue to face stigma and differential treatment in the marine unit and experience discrimination and isolation.”
The report drew on an anonymous survey of 50 respondents conducted between September and October 2023. It portrayed “a workplace that is not safe for women and challenges efforts to build a genuinely inclusive culture”.
It found 100% of women surveyed had witnessed sex discrimination or sexual or sex-based harassment in the marine unit compared with 33% of men. About 78% of women had personally experienced that behaviour compared with 18% of men.
Reported experiences included: sexist, misogynistic or misandrist comments, jokes or banter (67% of women and 8% of men); intrusive comments about their private life or physical appearance (56% of women and 5% of men); and sexually suggestive comments or jokes (44% of women and 3% of men).
While the survey was “not a representative sample” it was backed by 17 focus groups with a total of 104 participants and 32 individual interviews. These uncovered reports of “humiliating or threatening behaviour from colleagues, such as the deliberate denial of diet-appropriate meals during a patrol, ‘career curtailing gossip’ and yelling”.
The AHRC reported a “perceived lack of accountability … for inappropriate behaviours leading to distrust in the system” as complaints were made but “led to inadequate action or no visible consequences”. Examples included “accused officers being transferred to other vessels rather than … directly addressing the behaviour”, it said.
The AHRC called on the ABF to “undertake periodic risk assessments of inappropriate workplace behaviours in the marine unit and identify control measures”.
“The ABF should integrate diversity and inclusion training to foster a greater understanding of the experiences of women, first nations and Carm [culturally and racially marginalised] officers,” it said.
In a message to staff, Outram said the conduct uncovered was “not representative of all officers in our organisation” but accepted that “outdated ideas and assumptions about gender … and a lack of respect for diversity and inclusion drive these behaviours within the ABF”.
Outram vowed to “strengthen our systems that prevent and respond to unlawful workplace conduct and other inappropriate behaviour”.
Outram told Guardian Australia he had “proactively commissioned” the AHRC work in April 2022. “Given the experience of other similar organisations, it was always likely … we would find examples of conduct that has been identified in the reports,” he said.
Outram has now accepted all 42 recommendations of the marine unit report and a separate and wider AHRC Respect@Work project for the border force, which has also not been released. He promised a “detailed implementation plan”.
“I am resolutely committed to working with the AHRC to establish ABF as an exemplar in providing a safe, equitable, diverse and inclusive culture and workplace.”
The home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, said she “shared the commissioner’s concerns with the findings of the report and note the ABF has accepted all recommendations”.
