Women who have been sexually assaulted in workplaces – or bedrooms or parks – hear the ways we talk about it

‘There are people in and around parliament who you could hit over the head repeatedly with that report and who would still not get the memo.’ Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

I don’t know what it’s like to be Brittany Higgins. But unlike most people commenting on her in the wake of making rape allegations (allegations that are vehemently denied), I do know what it’s like to be raped by a political staffer while working for a politician, because it happened to me.

I was one of hundreds of people who made submissions to the sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins’ Set the Standard report. After the report was released, I hoped that people in positions of power would listen, would care, would act and would hold abusers accountable.