By Pia Bobeff
Content Warning: This articles contains mentions of sexual assault and sexual harassment (SASH). Support is available from the ANU’s Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault Response and Support page, or from the National Domestic Family and Sexual Violence Councelling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
It has been nine years since the ANUSA Women’s* Department first launched their August 1st Campaign in response to the Australian Human Rights Commission’s (AHRC) 2017 ‘Change the Course’ report. This report highlighted that 1 in 5 students were sexually harassed whilst being involved at university, with 68 percent of students reported knowing their perpetrator.
However, the 2021 ‘National Student’s Safety Survey’ (NSSS) stated that 1 in 6 had been sexually harassed at university, with the general campus area being the location for 54.7 percent of reports. The ANU was found to have higher rates of sexual harassment than the national average, prompting the university to develop a $3.3 million per year Student Safety and Wellbeing Plan to help further their “zero-tolerance approach in ANU culture”.
This year’s August 1st campaign, held by the ANUSA Women’s* Department, was called ‘The Time is Now: End Institutional Betrayal’. It highlighted the disconnect between what the ANU is implementing and what students are wanting to see from their university, with the report labelling the university’s compliance as a “tick-box” exercise and an attempt to prove “on-paper” that the ANU meets compliance standards.
The report provided 23 recommendations that the Department would like to see implemented by the university, including the introduction of an “independent oversight body for SASH and GBV response and prevention” and the “redevelop[ment] and implement[ation] [of] Residential Cultural Change Plans”. It also calls for the appointment of a “dedicated single, accountable senior officer for SASH and GBV reform” and the meaningful inclusion of “students from marginalised communities in SASH and GBV policy development/implementation”.
According to the Women’s* Department’s report, ANU in response to the AHRC’s 2017 report implemented changes including the Rights, Relationships and Respect module, the Harmful Behaviour Disclosure Tool, and the Inclusive and Respectful Committees Team. However, the Women’s* Department’s report claims that the university still has a “long way to go” with “students being failed by the ANU” due to their mismanagement of SASH disclosures, a lack of perpetrators being held accountable and a lack of effective pastoral care in residential halls.
The AHRC report found that 92 percent of students that had been sexually harassed at university and 79 percent of students who had been assaulted at university did not seek help from their institution. This year, the ANU saw a data breach of student’s SASH disclosure information. This has the potential to keep students from coming forward and disclosing, in the context where the AHRC has already found that many students do not seek help.
The report also highlights the perspective that the university has not followed through on their commitments, such as the implementation of their residential hall Cultural Change Plans. This is a situation Katie Jakab van Dooren, ANUSA Women’s Officer, names “institutional betrayal”, in the report. The ANU’s Sexual Misconduct Report revealed that 40 percent of ANU SASH incidents occurred in a residential hall, leaving questions about why significant actions taken to address this weren’t made.
Last year, the Department of Education introduced the National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence 2025, which aims to “reduce the incidence of Gender-based Violence in higher education”, to prevent and respond to GBV through creating national standards for higher education providers, and to create a “regulatory framework” to ensure compliance is maintained.
The Women’s* Department’s report stated that this Code provided an “essential opportunity” for the university to make “meaningful reform” but that ultimately the university’s approach has been “tokenistic”. The report stated there has been a lack of student engagement, apart from the University seeking the student union’s feedback on their 2026 ‘Gender Based Violence (GBV) Prevention and Response Plan’. The university has also sought student participation for working groups, a situation that has left students feeling “unsupported and unsafe” when working alongside the university.
It is clear the university still has a long way to go in creating meaningful SASH and GBV reform. With the 2026 NSSS survey later in the year and the ANUSA Women’s Department report recently released, ANU students will be awaiting action from the University and lasting, impactful change.
More to come.
Graphics by Olivia Xu
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